Wargaming

A Tale of Many Warlords- June

Swansong0930Leave a comment
  1. Austin B.
  2. Kevin C.
  3. Joe R.
  4. Jerry S.

Austin B.

Gno-me More Gnomes!

Another month, another Blood Bowl post, and guess what? It’s Gnomes again! I showed off the start of my actual Gnome team last month, and now I have the full team done! There’s still several associated Star Players I want (or need) to finish still, but the actual team is complete!

This team was a blast to paint. Lots of fun. The Treemen and various animals in particular were rather enjoyable, as they offered something different to break up the monotonous red tones of the team. I am very happy with how they turned out as a whole though. I hadn’t figured that red on red would work for a scheme, but I wanted to try it after seeing a painting (of a Gnome, by the way) with a similar outfit. And now you can see the Poppin’ Daisies (yes, that’s my team name) in all their glory!

Atop the actual team itself, I was able to complete Rodney Roachbait for use as a Star Player with them. He was also a nice change of pace since, again, he features more colors than red! That said, this model was surprisingly detailed and took longer than I had expected to get him done. I had planned to paint several other things alongside him during one evening, yet he ended up taking up the whole session by himself! 

As said above, I still have several Star Players to get to before I can truly call this team done. At least for those I actually have, there’s still Rumbelow Sheepskin and Griff Oberwald to get painted up, the former of which I’ll be completing this week in preparation for the Goonhammer Open’s Swelter Bowl. I’ll be bringing the Gnomes and their ram-riding fellow along to battle the heat and the other contestants for sweaty glory! I don’t expect to win much, but it should be a fun time at least. So you can expect to see Rumbelow at least in terms of Blood Bowl content next month, perhaps alongside some other stuff as I still work my way to NOVA!

Long Live The Empire!

Alongside the Gnomes, and also in preparation for the Goonhammer Open, I have been hurriedly painting my way through my Shatterpoint backlog, in some vain attempt to catch up to the steady stream of releases. Given that the Goonhammer Open decided on the Premiere format for their event, my attention has shifted rather considerably over to the Imperial forces I have been mustering (given they actually have enough units out to make a decent Premiere list). And so I have been making my way through the mostly black-clad Imperial forces, making good on the knowledge gained from last month’s painting of the Fifth Brother. Given my general dissatisfaction with the final result on him, I revised my approach to black armor, and these are the results of that:

Starting us off we’ve got Iden Versio and her Inferno Squad, as well as some generic Imperial Special Forces, and a Death Trooper Escort! Just as I said last month, I went with a starker blue-grey for the cloths in order to separate them from the now more sheer black armor paneling. This is far less apparent on the Death Trooper escort, but it’s certainly visible on the rest of them above. This helped a ton in breaking things up and making the models far more readable. But these elite forces weren’t the only additions to my completed pile… That Death Trooper escorts someone, doesn’t he?

Yes, Moff Gideon! Not to be confused with Gideon Hask of Inferno Squad above! This one shows off the new cloth and armor techniques perhaps the best, with the new cloth color being very visible against the armor panels, and the bright highlights helping make the armor pop. But what I am really most happy with is the Darksaber. It was rather enjoyable and surprisingly easy to get that edge gleam to work. And interestingly, it’s using many of the same colors used for both the armor and the cloth. Still, there’s one more of the Emperor’s servants that I got completed. The most infamous of them all!

Darth Vader! Specifically, the one from the Duel pack, most commonly referred to as Vader1 by the community (due to the fact that the Duel pack released before the “Fear and Dead Men” squad pack). This is definitely my favorite between the two sculpts of Vader in this game. The pose is fantastic. The way the cloak billows is very well executed. It was such a joy to paint, even though it was mostly the same 6 paints being used over and over again. It was a very nice model to end the month on, but it isn’t the last of the Imperials I still have to do! At least in preparation for the Goonhammer Open, I still need to finish painting the Grand Inquisitor and the Third Sister. If I have the time, I plan to repaint the Fifth Brother to match with my new methods as well. Beyond that, I still have two Dark Troopers, the Fourth Sister, and the other Vader to polish off my Imperial forces (at least until Thrawn and his crew get released in August). My Rebels are even further behind on progress, especially with the Ghost crew releasing in just a week! I’m hoping to catch up on Shatterpoint within the next month or few, so I can be on top of the releases moving forward. Though continued NOVA prep and other distractions may hamper those plans in the short term.That’s it for me for this month. I hope to have even more exciting things to show you all next month, and perhaps even a super surprise!

Kevin C.

Bretonnian Duke on Royal Pegasus

Have I mentioned yet how much I hate this miniature?

I ended up salvaging the look of the model, namely by using a great video of how to paint most of the parts from Duncan Rhodes (only available to subscribers, sadly). I probably should have left the wings off prior to painting, as so many of the pieces and parts were really hard to reach. I was going to do a decal heraldry, but I chose against it, since there is only a place on the shield for the heraldry. 

With the Duke complete, all of my knights are finished, and all that I have left are the filthy peasants. More to come next month, hopefully!

Legions Imperialis Tanks and Aircraft

I was finally able to procure some much-needed air support for my Vostroyans. As much as I hate the infantry for Legions Imperialis, the planes and tanks have been mostly delightful to build and straightforward to paint. It is unfortunate that I have not yet figured out how to play well with them.

I still have the Dracosans to paint to complete my Vostroyan Expeditionary Force, so they will have to wait until next month.

Blood Bowl Project

So, I mentioned that I have a Halfling BB Team on the backburner a few months ago, and Friend of the Blog asked, “Hey, while you are working on your Halfling BB Team, can you work on mine also?” So, I used his team as test cases for a paint scheme.

In the whole, I like the scheme and I plan to use it for my own team. This was the first time doing NMM techniques for rusted metal (on the pots, pans, and plates) and I think it looks good. I will probably replicate this for my own team, which I will show next month.

For the overall scheme, I used the tutorial provided by The Putrid Painter. 

In addition, I was able to get the treemen done for both Friend of the Blog as well as my own Halfling team. Three Halfling treemen, and one gnarly looking Gnome treeman, ready to hit the pitch. 

For these, I also used The Putrid Painter tutorial, https://youtu.be/E9k97Sw1S3o?si=aQzZCHr-q712ghe2

I don’t know if I’ll end up using any of his other tutorials in the future, since he seems to focus on Nurgle-ish themes (hence the name), and I don’t tend to go that way, but I appreciated the tutorials.

See you all next month, hopefully with some newly finished Bretonnian Archers!

Joe R.

Well, the astute of you might have noticed that my section of this monthly post was absent. Well, I spent the greater part of May getting my halflings ready for the Amorical Cup. Especially the last week of May, which is traditionally when I write this post! So I bailed to get things painted, still didn’t get everything painted, and went to Ottawa anyway!

The Moot Points – Halflings, Blood Bowl

Okay. The last we left off, I had shown off a near completed Bisque Batson (aka Shazam! Or the OG Captain Marvel for those in the know). 

Bisque’s cape (not pictured here) is one of my favorite features of this mini. I also think the white and gold turned out especially good. Overall, he’s very vibrant on the table. The style is a little cartoony, but I think I’m okay with that! They’re based on comic book characters after all.

After doing the gold on Bisque, I was feeling confident enough to work on my favorite model on the whole team, Michael Jon Custard (aka Booster Gold). Back when the Halfling team only had two positionals (Treemen & Halflings), MJC was an all-star. Now that the Halflings have a few more positions, I decided to run MJC as one of my catchers. 

Here is a picture of the original MJC. (I still did a VERY bad job taking before pictures. Just trust that all of these models started somewhere in this ballpark. This exercise has absolutely breathed new life into this team.

Not that long ago, I was very worried about highlighting and shading. I would basecoat a model, MAYBE throw a brown or black shade over the entire model and call it good. This model doesn’t even have a shade! Pretty sure this is Reaper New Gold and Tanned Flesh with Citadel Mordian Blue. Oh, and the basing is a coat of the extremely short lived GW texture paint Lustrian Undergrowth. He’s sat like this for years. 

So I started out by recoating all the gold with GW Retributor Armor and applying a “glaze” of VMC Red-Violet into the recesses of the skin (like I’d done on the other two so far). Then I took a 1:1 mix of Agrax Earthshade and Acrylic Medium and washed the gold. Here’s how that went.

I started out by recoating all the gold with GW Retributor Armor and applying a “glaze” of VMC Red-Violet into the recesses of the skin (like I’d done on the other two so far). Then I took a 1:1 mix of Agrax Earthshade and Acrylic Medium and washed the gold. Here’s how that went.
From here I started cleaning up the skin. I’ve found with these models that even if I mess up on other parts of the model (and I do!), having the skin develop provides a good distraction.

Here he is after some initial cleanup. Next up I used the Reaper Blue Triad (Sapphire Blue, True Blue, Sky Blue) to work on the shoulder pads and the pants. The shoulder pads turned out much nicer. Then I added some gold highlights with Auric Armor Gold and just a small amount of Stormhost Silver. Finally, he has a black eye (which you can barely make out in the picture above) so I mixed some Reaper Blue with VMC Red-Violet until I got something I liked. Oh! And I based Geek Gaming Scenics Spring sawdust grass. Here is the finished product. 

Overall, very pleased. A fine British friend of mine suggested the basing could use some additional flair. I agree! However, that got pushed to the backburned for now.

Next up? Hal Gourdon (the Green Lantern)

Of all the Halflings I painted in preparation for this event, I’m the most disappointed with Hal. I used the Two Thin Coats green triad (Wyvern, Emerald, and Ethereal Greens). I’m very happy with my TTC paints overall, btw. You’ll be seeing that come up more with future models. However, I think I got scared to push the green highlights with Hal. I may go back and give him another go. However, I also used the TTC black triad (Doom Death Black, Death Reaper, and Dungeon Stone Grey) on the pants, and felt that went pretty well. I was also unsure how to paint his pouty lip. Open to advice here!

Poor Hal. He’s not even my favorite Green Lantern… I’ll hit you rapid fire with rest of the models. 

Here is Berry Allen (the Flash). I was VERY pleased with this model. The VMC Red-Violet helped shade the reds, the yellows, and the skin! I also tried to glaze the brighter yellow on in a few layers (Reaper Sun Yellow over GW Averland Sunset). Reaper Sun Yellow is a garbage paint, but the glazing effect mostly worked out. I think I’ll be picking up a new bright yellow soon.
This is Hank McSoy (aka The Beast). I painted him in the traditional yellow-blue scheme of the original X-Men, but I kept his hair blue as an homage to the modern version of Beast. Again, VMC Red-Violet did a bunch of work here to provide shadows for the skin, blues, and yellows. I didn’t usually run Hank because I didn’t think his paint job was very interesting, now I think he’s one of the most interesting on the table!
This is Ted Korn (aka the 2nd Blue Beetle) and MJC’s best friend and partner in crime. It’s convenient that this ended up being my second favorite model in the whole bunch. Ted required a lot of work though. He was originally Teal and Sky Blue. After reviewing some of my favorite appearances of the Blue Beetle, I decided to go with a primarily Blue/Light Blue scheme. Teal does often show up on modern colorings of Ted, so I kept his cape (not really visible here) teal. I also painted his classic yellow goggles and even added a specular highlight! Huzzah! Growth! It was worth the repaint and he looks awesome sitting on the table.
This is another model I am very proud of. Arthur Curry (aka Aquaman) tends to be one of my tougher halflings. I used my scheme from MJC for the gold and decided to push the TTC green highlights a little higher here. I also used a dark blue to shade the orange which turned out to be a big problem. I spent a lot of time correcting the saturation because the blue looked very unnatural.

Now we get into the problem children. The last three models took me forever to complete, largely because they needed to be completely repainted. Their original schemes just didn’t work with the vision I had in mid. Some of them turned out great, but others will be joining Hal in the “eh” category.

Unlike Steak Rogers (aka Captain America) I could not “do this all day”. I had decided that I wanted to do a different blue with this model to change things up. So I decided to use GW The Fang, Russ Grey, and Fenrisian Grey for a slightly desaturated look. I spent a lot of time fighting with those paints. Honestly? I think they’re just old. They’re from the initial relaunch of the Citadel paint line as GW paints. However, Steve did eventually come together, even though I’m still a little disappointed with the way the blue-grey came out.
This is another of my favorite models, even if the paint job didn’t turn out exactly as planned. This is LoCal (aka Lobo) the dedicated fouler of the Moot Points. The sculpt of this model has a ton of character, and I’ve been using him for years to put the boot to downed opponents. He also required an entire repaint because the white skin preventing me from using while anywhere else on the model. I tried to differentiate blacks by using black with grey highlights on the helm and black with blue highlights for the leather. It kinda worked? The best thing about this whole model is that I got his moustache painted on. Oh, and the purple turned out good too.

The sculpt of this model has a ton of character, and I’ve been using him for years to put the boot to downed opponents.

Finally, in the 11th hour I realized I was a halfling short. So I picked the most painted halfling I had remaining and got him based coated. I introduce you to J’John J’Juice, the Martian Manhunter. 

He’s green! He has almost no highlights. He was good enough! However, the shirt caused a real problem because I felt like there was too much blue all together. I eventually “solved” it by going with a darker blue. I might ultimately go back and make it black/grey just to keep things cleaner. Again, open to suggestions.

So, you might possibly be wondering how we did at Amorical. We did much better than we anticipated! I ended up going 3 Wins and 3 Ties with the halflings, landing me at 23rd out of 200 participants. I came in… 3rd (?) for the Stunty Cup. My team. DUBBL Trouble came in 9th overall (out of 50) and came in 2nd (!!!) for our low point team build. Overall, it was a great time!

Bonus! – Blood Bowl

I’ve continued to work on my Dwarf team (the Wynnstaat Warriors) from my first A Tale of Many Warlords. I’ve swapped to using the TTC green triad mentioned above. I’m still getting used to highlighting, but ever model has something that works. In this case, I was proud of the skin, helmet, and ball. 

The wrinkles in the clothing, especially on the belly, were tough. I eventually got tired of messing with them and called this model good. I’m not sure how I’m going to base any of them. I’ll probably wait until the end to figure it out.

Also, as of writing, the Northern Virginia BB Tournament scene just closed out the 3rd annual Akhorne 8s. I was slotted as the odd player out (OPO), who plays if we have an uneven number of coaches in attendance. I ended up sitting out, but still got my Akhorne cleaned up just in case. I painted this little fellow for the 1st Akhorne 8s and felt he was the best thing I had ever painted at the time. I still think he’s very cute, but I touched up some places on the fur where the contrast paint didn’t take very well. 

I based him today! I applied a layer of Stirland Mud, let that dry, and tried to selectively add my sawdust grass. I ended up covering most of the mud… oh well. Look at that white line though! I applied that by putting a thick, wet coat of TTC Trooper White on a tooth pick and pressing it firmly onto the base. My British friend remains unimpressed. Maybe a skull? Can you ever really please the British?

That’s it for me folks, expect more Blood Bowl each month. I’m on a quest paint the last 7 teams I haven’t played (dwarves, chaos dwarves, high elves, elven union, dark elves, and lizardmen) and get them played by the end of the year. Wish me luck!

Jerry S.

Happy July everybody! June was a great month for me in the hobby, even if I didn’t hit all of my goals. I started the month planning on having all of my Legions Imperialis infantry finished and the whole army built. I fell a little short of this, only finishing 10 stands of terminators and only partially completing the rest of the infantry.

In an effort to procrastinate painting my smaller infantry, I did get substantial painting done on my 28mm Solar Auxilia. Finishing 40 las rifles, 10 Velataris, and 3 ogryns. I continue to love painting these models. Even got a second game with them!

This is the first month this year that I did not finish any Old World models, a streak I do not intend to continue. Look forward to seeing some more skeletons, mummies and constructs in the coming months.

Lets start with the smallest models in my collection:

This scheme isn’t too laborious, a necessity when painting such large quantities of such small models.

Here are the completed terminators for my White Scars. This scheme isn’t too laborious, a necessity when painting such large quantities of such small models.

These were painted with a simple zenithal of white over light grey, with some Mephiston red trim, with black and metal details painted on, covered with an umber oil wash to call out more of the details.

Here is my whole Legions Army, assembled and primed. There is certainly something to be said about how cool these models look ranked up en mass. I look forward to seeing the completed army on the tabletop, even if I loath the painting process.

Moving onto bigger, better Heresy- I had a prolific month painting Solar Auxilia, finishing a full 40 Las Rifles, 10 of the elite Velataris, and 3 of the hulking Charonite Ogryns.

I love the look of these resin Lasriflemen but I have to admit, painting the new plastics is a much smoother process. Luckily I have another 20 of the plastics yet to build and paint.

These Ogryns are absolutely brutal sculpts, and I mean that in the best way possible. They aren’t very good on the tabletop but they are absolutely fearsome on the painting table.

To start the month off, I watched the Lord of The Rings trilogy again… This, coupled with the upcoming supplement for Arnor and Angmar gave me an incredible urge to paint up some lord of the rings SPG models. Luckily I had the perfect trio of minis to paint up ahead of the new supplement…

The Witch King of Angmar!

I had the new plastics sitting in a cupboard along with the original Metal black rider model so I pulled out my brushes and gave these models a quick paintjob. I haven’t added flock to these just yet as I’m unsure if they will be joining my mordor army or my Angmar army. A decision that will likely wait until we have the new book in hand.

I’m very excited of July, a month without any work travel gives me great opportunity to get some hobbying done. I’m going to need every bit of that time if I plan on being prepared for NOVA as well. I have quite a bit of painting that still needs to be done ahead of my NOVA Events. I’ve listed the below things I need to finish to keep me honest!

  • Ultramarines
    • Paint my Thunderhawk and Base
    • build and paint 5 more Ultramarine Cataphractii Terminator
    • Stretch Goal: Paint Roboute Guilliman
    • Build and paint 20 Praetorian Breachers
  • Solar Auxilia
    • Paint my Solar Auxilia Command Squad
    • Paint 2 leman russes
    • Paint 1 Malcador
    • Build and paint 20 Companions
    • Build and paint 2 Auroxes

Its a long list, lets see if I can pull it out!

And that’s a wrap for this month’s hobby update! From finished Gnomes to ongoing Blood Bowl projects and Warhammer painting, we’ve seen a wide range of impressive work. Even though not all goals were met, the dedication and progress are truly inspiring. Can’t wait to see what next month’s updates will bring!

Remember to keep an eye out for more updates and surprises in the coming months! Happy hobbying, everyone!

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A Tale of Many Warlords- May

Swansong0930Leave a comment

Austin

Gnomes! Gnomes In The Dungeon!

I thought you ought to know…

…that I completed my College of Shadows team! I had showed off my single test-gnome at the end of last month’s article, so it seemed only fitting that I start this one off with the completed team! Representing the College of Shadows is my team, “Hello From Down Under,” sporting two Skaven Blitzers, two Gutter Runners, one Skaven Thrower, one Witch Elf, one Dark Elf Lineman, two Woodland Foxes, one Gnome Beastmaster, one Gnome Illusionist, and two Gnome Linemen! Quite an eclectic mix, no? But that’s what I love about the Dungeon Bowl teams. They offer an amazing opportunity to bring together the various Blood Bowl teams. And with the recent addition of Gnomes to their roster, I figured it was high time I get the College of Shadows painted up! Here are some close-ups of the various members…

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I went with grey foxes for the Shadows team, since I felt they fit in more with the team’s color scheme than the starker red fox one might expect. And I am pretty happy with how they turned out!

You may also notice one additional, mysterious member I have yet to mention. That, my dear readers, is my Wizard! Alongside the eight Colleges, I want to also make up eight Wizards to act as sideline tokens for the Inducement. This is the first of those, the Grey Wizard, who quietly sports his team’s colors with the dark blue frill on his robes and an emerald scarf underneath them. While most of the Colleges are fairly easy to build from the Collegiate Arcane/Empire Wizards kit, the Grey Wizards are unrepresented, so he ended up requiring a bit of work to get right. The hat I had to sculpt, and the skull was added to the staff by replacing one of the other ornaments. Fun hobby tip, floss makes great rope or bandages, and I used that to tie the skull onto the staff.

With some playtesting already done, it is likely that I’ll have a few more members still to paint up for this team, to beef up the roster slightly. But at least my initial roster is complete! That said, the College of Shadows team was not the only thing I have done this month for Blood Bowl! With our local league starting up I decided I needed to get a team finished up for that. I had initially figured I’d run Vampires, but with them being rather overrepresented in the league by the time I was signing up, I switched my decision last minute to… Gnomes! Yes, more Gnomes! I really love the new Gnome models, and I had bought a second box to do up an 11s team. Given I had just gotten some experience painting them up, I figured now was a decent time to continue with them, just in a different color scheme. And so I am proud to present to you the “Poppin’ Daisies,” my Gnome team!

They’re not quite complete yet for this article, but they likely will be done within the next week or two. Alongside some Star Players that I plan to play with them. And speaking of Star Players…

I have completed an Akhorne the Squirrel! This was a fun little side project I had been wanting to do for a while, and now with a League to join and the opportunity to make use of him, I figured I would get the little bugger done! The skull pile in particular was really fun to figure out. The center is actually just filled with modelling putty, with the skulls pressed into the sides. Plus a few loose jaw-bones to fill in gaps here or there… That Skulls kit really is great.

Now hopefully by next month I will be able to show you the full Gnome team, Stars included. But atop that, as I said last month, I do really need to return to my Vampire team, who may well be getting their own Stars to show off! I do need to get them done for NOVA – or maybe even the Goonhammer Open, which I intend to attend! So work needs to be completed on them post-haste. 

May The Force Be With You

Alongside all the Blood Bowl stuff I have completed this month, I’ve also been more slowly working through my Shatterpoint backlog, which is growing larger with every month. And with there also being a Shatterpoint event at the Goonhammer Open, I may be needing to speed up the process in preparation there too! Plus we have new boxes coming out next week… Yeah, it’s rough! But you know what’s harder? Painting white! Or at least I thought it was…

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Yes, what I have added to the completed pile this month is some Stormtroopers! And they were not quite the pain to paint as I thought they would have been. But then I think that might have been aided by some new paints I procured. The release of the Warpaints Fanatic range has certainly taken local painters by storm, and all the good press I have heard regarding the line convinced me to pick up a few paints to give them a try. I think the results speak for themselves. The white here is fairly simple: GW Grey Seer primer, washed with GW Soulblight Grey – which is pretty much my standard start for white nowadays – then layered over with the new WPF Brigade Grey, and then highlighted with the WPF Matt White.

I have had a ton of issues with other companies’ white paints before. GW’s tends to dry up in the pot (though all their paints to, the white just does it faster) and is rather chunky, while Vallejo’s tends to get clogged in the dropper top and separates constantly. But these two paints I have yet to have any issues with. I have cautious optimism moving forward with the rest of the Fanatics range, but I have been duly impressed thus far. Oh, and pre-loaded mixing balls. Need I say more?

Beyond the Stormtroopers, I also tried my hand at the iconic black armour of many other Imperial units by painting the Fifth Brother. This model was more of a hassle to paint, though that primarily came down to the paint scheme more than anything. Black on black is very difficult to pull off. Differentiating two or three different blacks on the same model was a challenge and, while I am happy with the end result, I do not thing I quite achieved what I was going for. Further models will probably go with a grey for cloths, to have at least some difference.

In The Far Future…

…there is only more to paint! Alongside the upcoming events and the necessity to paint through all these models for them, I’ve also volunteered to be the Arbitrator for a small Necromunda campaign with some other friends of mine. While I might not have much to show for it next month – as I am only in the preparations stage at the moment – I will be working on an Escher gang to play in this campaign, as well as terrain for it which I will definitely show off once I get around to it. I have already gotten back into the swing of things with a quick palette-cleanser/test-subject in this Hive Scum, for whom I used as an experiment piece for a process for dirty white armour. That might show up with a few models in the future as well… 

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Kevin C.

Bretonnian Pegasus Knights

After a month of losing progress on my Bretonnians, I am back to it! I wanted to make sure I finished all of my knights before working on the filthy peasants, so this month was all about getting the Pegasus Knights completed. For these, as with my regular knights, I painted the knights detached from the mount, and glued them when they were complete.

In contrast with many white and light-colored Pegasus knights I’ve seen online, as well as my old Pegasus knights, I wanted to paint these mounts brown. This way, I could really explore the color spectrum along the wings, and get some cool feathering effects. I’m not sure I am entirely thrilled with the blend I instituted on the wings, since the colors were not quite as smooth of transitions as I would’ve liked to make them look natural. But, as always, washes and drybrush cover many sins.

My hope is that, next month, when I work on the Royal Pegasus (which will be white), it will be a good contrast to the more rustic look of these “normal” Pegasus knights.

Legions Imperialis Solar Auxilia Support (Rapiers and Cyclopses)

The support batteries were rough to hold onto – they had to be assembled beforehand, so I couldn’t simply paint them on the sprue like I did with the tercio infantry, but they were much smaller than the tanks and liable to get lost. In the end, I had to store them in a bin until I could get to painting them. Finally, I was able to do so this month.

I did nothing fancy with these guys – just Iron Hands Steel with Nuln Oil on any of the metal bits, and my Vostroyan tank paint scheme:

  • Zandri Dust Base
  • Ushabti Bone Heavy Drybrush
  • Athonian Camoshade Wash
  • Screaming Skull Light Drybrush
  • Blood Angel Red for any detail markings

Thank goodness I painted the bases beforehand. I think that saved me a massive headache of trying to do these in conjunction with the miniatures.

Inquisitorial Stormtroopers (Kasrkin) Kill Team

My final main project for this month has been the Inquisitorial Stormtroopers I’ve been wanting to paint up for a while now. I like how they play as a kill team – no synergy shenanigans, no layering dependencies, just reliable firepower – so I’d like to bring them to NOVA this year if I can.

I used to play a lot of Darktide back in the day (you know, six months ago), so I figured that it’s only natural that I do an Inquisitorial Stormtrooper squad paint scheme. I used much of the advice from Peachy’s video on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_8wtU28oJw), though it is less of a “speed paint” than one might believe watching the video. It took quite a bit for me to finish this squad, but I got it done.

When I finished painting them, I thought they looked good. However, once I finished painting them, I sprayed them with dullcote. Sadly, it was less “dull” than I was hoping, and it is still quite shiny, so the pictures do not make them look great. 

True to form, I wanted to make sure all the troops had masks on – except for this mad lad. He’s the Warhammer+ miniature from last year, which I decided to paint at the same time in the same skin. Maybe I’ll use him as a proxy or something.

Other Projects

As you well know, dear reader, we are preparing for a campaign in Legions Imperialis, so we are trying to paint up as many buildings as we can. Using a pretty simple paint scheme that have been used for Osgiliath Ruins (detailed here: https://youtu.be/QbYRtcSU5fs?si=assJoiAuH9IWzf7p), I painted up two additional buildings for the campaign.

Jerry S.

Howdy readers! I gotta say, May was a great month for me in the hobby space. I was able to get a solid start on my new Solar Auxilia, finish painting my Legions Imperialis Titans, build a firstborn tactical squad for Killteam, 3d-print a board for the squad to fight on, completely build a Thunderhawk gunship, and get a couple units done for my Tomb Kings! A busy month indeed over in my studio, hopefully June brings just as much productivity my way.

First up, I want to show you readers the Solar Auxilia that I painted up this month. I’m particularly proud of the paint scheme of these models as it was relatively quick and looks absolutely fantastic on the tabletop. I mostly followed the painting guide here from Feral Painter. his metals and fatigues are almost an exact match for what I ended up with, the only real changes I made to the scheme were changing the helmets and shoulders with Kantor Blue with a Thrash Metal Drybrush overtop to give a nice weathered blue look to these guys. I love how the red eyelenses contrast with the blue armorplates. This scheme was so quick that I was able to paint up 20 of these guys in just one week!

Staying in the Heresy era, I was able to finish painting (sans basing and decals) my Epic Scale titans- Two Warhounds and a Reaver titan! I love the Legio Astorum scheme that I’ve settled on and I look forward to getting these guys on the tabletop soon. As Kevin mentioned, our gaming group is starting a campaign in July and I have a TON of models I still need to get built and painted before I can play a proper game. The main thing holding me back was deciding on a basing scheme for the army but I am happy to say that I think I finally have a winning scheme picked out. A simple wasteland basing to make the Whites of my Space Marines pop, as well as contrast the Blues of my titans well. Looking forward to having the whole epic force painted up soon.

switching gears away from massive armies and grand battlefields, at the behest of Kevin, I have started a space marine killteam (pictured below) using some first born bits on Tortuga Bay bodies. I love the look of these guys and I expect to get them painted in the near future.

Of course, I can’t start a new game without creating a whole board for it, and as you can see, my printer has been very busy this month creating a space for my and anybody else in my gaming group a space to play.

Switching gears once yet again, I managed to put in some more work on my Tomb kings army, building and painting my first Old World Monster-The mighty Bone Giant! This isn’t my favorite model in the world but It was a quick paint and stands out on the tabletop.

Also painted this month was “most of” my casket of souls. As you can see, I left out the mortuary priest. This was mostly because I intend to paint all four of the army’s priests at the same time, or at least close together, to preserve the uniformity of the cult.

Last but certainly not least, I finished the build of my Thunderhawk. I think by mass this is the largest “mini” I have ever built. I absolutely love this model, it was a challenging build but not as bad as the Warhound titan’s I’ve built. I’ll probably write up a side article detailing my building process in the future so stay tuned!

In the meantime- please enjoy looking at this beautiful bird resting upon its roost.

That’s all for me this month, and what a busy month it was! The month of June will likely be a good hobby month for me as I race to finish my Solar aux and thunderhawk for NOVA as well as paint an entire legions Imperialis army for our upcoming campaign in July so stay tuned!

Michael S.

This month I took some time to build and prime up a number of models from various projects. I did manage to get some paint on a couple, but most of my hobby time was spent on the less glorious parts of mold-line trimming and laying down enough yellow primer to finally get good coverage (It takes more than you’d think!)

I painted up one of the squads I primed for my Templars and was quite happy with the way they turned out. They were slightly altered from the typical assault intercessor kit using a few bits and bobs leftover from other templar kits. Edge highlighting tends to take me a while, so I was happy to get these 5 done in a few hours.

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I also primed and built about 20 Imperial Fists models. I threw a bit more paint on one of the lieutenants to get a feel for how I wanted the armor to look. I’ve tried a few different methods for getting the right shade of yellow, and I am happy with this method I’ve come up with.

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I started with a Yellow-Brown basecoat and relied on a mix of some enamel washes to get the right shading in the recesses. Using enamel washes is much faster than acrylic due to the similar properties to oil washes. 

Last for painting this month, I tested out a scheme for the Imperial Guard Combat Patrol I showed earlier on the blog. I got all the models fully primed, and a few fully painted.

May was a bit of a slower hobby month, so that’s all for me! I am aiming to jump back to my Death Guard/Tomb Kings in June!

A Tale of Many Warlords- April

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Jerry S.

Howdy All! I’m taking lead this month and I gotta admit I’m pretty happy with my progress this month. This has been a pretty exciting month on my hobby desk. I continued my roll with my Tomb Kings and was able to get a good amount of progress on a couple Horus Heresy projects.

Tomb Kings

To start, I’ve continued making steady progress on my Tomb Kings with another block of 20 skeletons painted in the teal white scheme that I showed off in February. This is my 3rd 20 skeleton block completed and they make quite the sight all lined up. These 3 blocks of bones will be the main bulk of my Tomb Kings army for the time being.

While I still have 20 skeleton archers to paint, I will be taking a small break from painting the rank and file this month to paint up some of the more fun models in the Tomb Kings lineup. Below is a work in progress shot of a casket of souls I was working on as our April deadline arrived. I am very much looking forward to seeing this model completed, as well as one of the more Colossal models in the range.

The Horus Heresy

Turning our attention to the 31st millennium- I made some great progress on a squad of 5 Gal Vorbak and a Terminator Captain for my Word Bearers force that I will be using at the NOVA Open’s Zone Mortalis event in September.

This was my first time painting a fire effect and while the transitions could be a little smoother, I am thrilled with the finished product.

Solar Auxilia

I’ve been waffling back and forth on what army I wanted to bring to my NOVA doubles event and this month’s release gave me my answer. Anybody who knows me, knows that my first love in warhammer is the humble guardsman. The release of Solar Auxilia in plastic, has given me the incredible opportunity to work on an army that I’ve always loved, albeit from afar. I have acquired a few of the resin models from the always generous Mike P. and along with my headfirst dive into the new plastics, I will soon be able to put a 3000 point (unpainted) army on the field.

Needless to say, I’ve gone fully off the deep end on this release as this isn’t even half of the pile of Solar Auxilia models I have in my backlog now.

I think its safe to say that for the rest of the year, our loyal readers can expect to see a constant stream of finished Solar Auxilia models to join the already steady stream of Tomb Kings.

To finish up this month, I have a couple pictures of my first painted epic White Scars, alongside some 3d printed terrain that will be used as an Armies on Parade board for the NOVA open.

Oh and this landing pad….I wonder what will be calling this home…..

Kevin C.

Sadly, in contrast to last month where I had two Bretonnian units done, this month I have … none. With several deliverables at work, as well as a family trip down to Texas to see the eclipse in the middle of the month, my hobby time was severely curtailed. But, I was able to see a total solar eclipse for the first time, albeit through the clouds. So, this was cool…

I’ve also started hitting a groove where I watch my friends (and wife) play Helldivers 2 during the evenings, defending managed democracy, while I paint. It’s an enjoyable distraction, and I get to keep up with the gossip.

Legions Imperialis

So, I have a butt-ton of LI stuff to still paint:

  • Three Support Boxes (thank you Austin for needling me into buying a third)
  • Two Malcador Infernuses (Infernii?)
  • Two Valdor Tanks
  • Six Lightning Fighters
  • Two Marauder Bombers
  • Four Warhound Titans
  • Two Reaver Titans

I am very, very slowly making my way through the list. I decided to get the bases done, all in one go, with the technique shown on the Games Workshop Youtube channel video here (https://youtu.be/6MB5hLu9dlw).

  • Wraithbone primer
  • Seraphim Sepia Wash
  • Stipple brush with White Scar

This provides a nice contrast to my red & gold Vostroyans – it’s lighter in color, but still from the warm side of the palette, so it brings the force together.

After these were complete, I got super lazy and primed all of the platforms in the Support box Leadbelcher, and painted a few details on them after I got back from Texas. They are not great, but they are done, which has a quality all of its own.

Blood Bowl Black Orcs

These were not mine, but friends of the blog, who are Very Serious Blood Bowl Players™, needed a team done by May 3. I told them I could help them out, since I’ve painted Black Orcs before, which was a bit ambitious of me, considering my workload this month.

For Orc skin, I generally like doing lighter green skin, since that tends to make them pop on the table more. I really like Duncan Rhodes’ recipe that he uses for his Goff Boy in this video (https://youtu.be/EHxvAN7haMs). It’s not Blood Bowl, but it works well for most orcs, and it’s scalable – meaning, if I want to add extra details, it’s definitely doable.

  • Orruk Flesh Base
  • Athonian Camoshade Wash
  • Orruk Flesh first highlight
  • Nurgling Green second highlight
  • Kislev Flesh on select areas – lips, eartips, nosetips, scar tissue

Because they are supposed to be Black Orcs, I based the armor all in Leadbelcher and then covered it in Black Contrast – very easy dark armor there that you can then build upon with Stormhost Silver highlight. For the leather pants and belts, I used two different recipes for brown that I also use for my Bretonnians.

  • Rhinox Hide 🡪 Doombull Brown 🡪 Tuskgor Fur for the pants (I use this for the leather bits on Bretonnians)
  • Mournfang Brown 🡪 Skrag Brown for the belts

Because, as noted before, the owners of these Black Orcs are Very Serious Blood Bowl Players™, they needed these minis to have numbers for League Play. For the orcs, this isn’t a problem, but there is not a lot of armor for the goblins. So, I decided to put the numbers on their butts.

Finally, I decided to try out Technical Paints, using more or less the same recipe I plan to use for the movement trays for my Bretonnians, as shown in this video (https://youtu.be/k7tUuwJgZAs). Stirland Mud, Agrax Earthshade, and Gorthor Brown, along with healthy heaping of grass flock. To make it more football-like, I added white lines to the grass, using a coffee stirrer.

Supporting My Bretonnians

So, I was not able to paint any Bretonnian miniatures, but that doesn’t mean I did not paint anything for The Old World. A few months ago, I bought some movement trays from Litko, when they had just released Lance Formation shaped movement trays. I finally got time to glue them together and paint them accordingly. I also magnetized both the Knight bases and the movement trays, for easier transport. Hopefully this will make transporting them so much easier than packing them individually – I will not be doing that again.

That is all for me. I am hopeful that next month I will have the remainder of my knights completed. Until then!

Austin B.

April Advancements

Much like some of the others, this month has been a busy time for me, particularly with work. But still, I was able to get a bit of hobbying done in what little free time I had, though not quite as much as I had hoped. Between the lack of time and my constant jumping between projects, I don’t have as much to show as some of the others here – though with a few things in stages on the painting table, the next month might prove more productive! Still, it wasn’t a meaningless month, and I’ve still made great progress on miniatures for my newest obsession: Star Wars Shatterpoint. And necessarily, too, as my locals is having a tournament on May 11th that I plan to attend with a fully painted roster!

I’ll start with perhaps one of my favorites, the “Fearless and Inventive” squad pack, harkening back to the opening scenes of Return of the Jedi, with Leia in her bounty hunter getup, Lando and R2D2 in disguise, and Luke in his iconic black robes. R2 and Luke were technically completed last month, but were not yet based. All of these were very fun to paint up, all being very individual – though I did struggle a great deal with R2 as many of his details were rather small and soft. Luke was ultimately the easiest, just being almost entirely black robes. Ultimately though I found Leia (or well, Boushh) the most fun to paint, as I got to play around with trying to differentiate a few different tans and browns on a single model. My current intention is to run these guys as one of my squads in the upcoming event, so I was happy to get them all done.

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Next up, and totally new for you all, is the “That’s Good Business” squad pack. Have I mentioned how much I love the box names for Shatterpoint? They’re great, and this box has probably one of the best. Haha! But here we have what will likely be my second squad for the event, as Shatterpoint lists require you run two squads together to form your Strike Team. And who better to assist our Rebel friends than the magnificent Hondo Ohnaka and his band of pirates? Hondo here especially was a real joy to paint (well, except for the monkey-lizard on his shoulder, whom I should have left off for sub-assembly. Again the uniqueness aspect of many of these Shatterpoint squads strikes again, as really every one of these models was fun and individual. Unfortunately that individuality also means batch painting is nearly impossible, so the time it takes to paint these models is increased compared to my more usual projects – certainly a contributing factor to my significant decrease in finished models to show off this month. 

Now, if I have the time between the end of this month and the event, the plan is actually to replace the Weequay Pirates above with the generic Bounty Hunters from my recently acquired “Fistfull of Credits” squad pack. You will almost certainly see them – and likely their named compatriots – in the next monthly updated. But if I can get them done in the remaining week and a half is yet to be seen…?

Other than that, further progress has been made on the initial two boxes I purchased, the two different Ewok squad packs. Again, some of these were already complete at the end of last month, but now I have finished some more of them and have gotten them all based up. The generic Ewoks still remain unfinished though. Unlike many of the other models, they have not been very fun to paint, at least for me. To be honest, it is partially my fault for having assembled them completely first, instead of doing them in sub-assemblies. But partially it’s the model’s fault, as each of the Ewoks, of which there are three to a base, have nearly the same amount of detail as the individual character models, so the time required to paint them to my standard is just absurd. Hopefully they will be done by next month, but I am not so sure I will get back to them before other things.

Plans And Preparations

Beyond all my progress with Shatterpoint, I’ve been turning my attention towards preparing my various lists for the NOVA Open this year. I have signed up for most of the Blood Bowl events at NOVA, as well as one event for Legions Imperialis. Though the convention is months away, I do not want to have to be painting frantically in the weeks leading up to the event, and would rather get my various teams and whatnot completed beforehand, so I can shift focus back to my other projects. Of course, why not kill two birds with one stone though, and complete some things I want to do anyways, or projects that I have been holding off on? I haven’t fully decided on all the teams I will be bringing for the various Blood Bowl events, but I do have a short list that I figure I will make the focus of things for a while. Meanwhile, I need to get my Legions Imperialis painted up anyways, as I am falling behind with the releases, so they were to become a priority anyways. And I have already started on my Solar Auxilia Support boxes, as well as a clutch of vehicles that I have added since I last showed off the army. I had hoped to have some of them done this month, but the support weapons have proven to be a bit of a chore to paint – though the vehicles are thankfully the opposite. 

Now on the Blood Bowl side of things, I think I will be soon focusing on finishing up my Vampire team that has been sleeping in its coffin for a few months now. But besides that, the one team I have most certainly decided to bring is the College of Shadows for Dungeon Bowl, and I have begun the task of painting up that eclectic mix of Dark Elves, Skaven, and… Gnomes!

This little buddy is the test model for my College of Shadows team, showing off the team colors of dark blue and emerald green. He will be joined by a few more of his kind, alongside some Skaven Blitzers, Gutter Runners, and a Thrower, as well as the terrifying Witch Elf and another Dark Elf lineman. But more on them next month, hopefully! And maybe a little magical surprise to go along with them…

Michael S.

This month I’ve been busy with lots of travel, but wanted to still get as much does as possible. Last month, I set some ambitious goals of fully completing 3 units. Sadly, I fell a bit short of my original goal. I was able to complete 2 of my 3 units. In addition, I made some good progress on a few other models that were waiting for some paint. All said and done, not all too disappointed given my busy month!

First off, my Heresy Death Guard. These tactical support marines have made an appearance before as a half-finished unit, but I finally got transfers applied. They are just waiting for some varnish!

I am pretty stoked about the final look for this unit. The transfers really brings them together.

Next up, my Tomb Kings have their first completed regiment. A unit of skeleton warriors in bright red. Quite happy with how this scheme turned out, and I am looking forward to painting the next unit. This was a fun exercise in contrast paint for me, a tool I haven’t heavily used before as the primary paint for a unit.

With the completed units out of the way, I wanted to showcase a few miscellaneous models from my desk. My longtime 40k army is Black Templars, though shameful few models are fully painted. After painting the units above, I had the itch to get back to edge highlighting some black armor and pulled out a few models. I was able to get some paint on a few of the terminators from Leviathan.

Frustratingly, the AP Speedpaint I used on the shoulderpad started to crackle when drying. This seems to be a side effect of using it over top of a less-than-matte undercoat. It was relatively easy to hit it with a wash to “fix” the crackle effect, but the shoulder pad ended up a much darker color than I intended. Despite this setback, I was super happy with how the cape and face turned out. The heraldry needs some attention, as to the metallics, but otherwise the model is coming together nicely.

In a departure to some non-GW models, I spent a little bit of time working on my Malifaux crew. I wanted to play with some of my new vibrant colors from the updated Vallejo Game Color range. As a long time VGC-hater, these paints have quickly become my go-to. The original colors often had a satin/glossy finish, and many colors had poor coverage. The updated range is quite the opposite!

That just about does it for me! May is shaping up to be a similarly busy month, so in an effort to achieve my goals, I am only aiming to finish my unit of tactical marines left over from this month. Happy hobbying!

Mike P.

Firstly, a huge shoutout to Mike and Taylor—it was fantastic meeting you both over the weekend, and I’m incredibly grateful for all the love and support.

Now, to bring everyone up to speed: I’ve admittedly taken a bit of a break from wielding the paintbrush recently. Truth be told, last month’s update was missing because, A, my productivity took a dip, and B, I’ve been pouring my efforts into completing my final papers for my bachelor’s degree. However, amidst the chaos, I managed to make some progress on a remarkable new project—the Bretonnian Paladin. This model has been an absolute joy to paint, though I must confess, I lost track of time completely immersed in the process. But hey, sometimes that’s just part of the magic, isn’t it?

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In my initial article, I briefly mentioned my visit to Warhammer World, and now I’m excited to delve deeper into how I made that journey happen and share my experiences along the way. This isn’t meant to be the definitive guide, but rather a practical roadmap for those looking to embark on this adventure without breaking the bank. For those unfamiliar, Warhammer World is akin to Yankee Stadium for baseball fans or the Canton, Ohio for football enthusiasts—it’s the ultimate destination for tabletop miniatures aficionados, often likened to the “Disney World” of our niche hobby.

Surprisingly, prior to my own visit in 2022, I struggled to find comprehensive guidance on how to make the trip a reality. Despite reaching out to others who had been, I never received that insider’s perspective or “homeboy hook-up” that would truly demystify the process. It felt like an elusive secret guarded by those in the know. Since returning from my trip, I’ve been approached by numerous people seeking advice on how to replicate my experience and make their own Warhammer World pilgrimage. Thus, I feel compelled to share my insights and tips with fellow hobbyists eager to take the leap.

Picture it: mid-June 2022, a world still grappling with the aftershocks of COVID, and I’m feeling the weight of it all as I juggle the demands of my job. Every day feels like an uphill battle against the monotony, and I’m yearning for a break—something to shake up the routine. Then, in a moment of sheer desperation, a wild idea strikes me: what if I just went to Warhammer World?

Of course, there are hurdles to clear. Being married and in my line of work, jetting off to another country isn’t exactly a spontaneous decision. I figured it was just a fleeting daydream, something to ponder over my morning coffee. But then, I decided to broach the subject with my wife, expecting a skeptical response. To my surprise, she actually gave me her blessing. Emboldened by this unexpected support, I approached my workplace the next day—and to my astonishment, they too gave me the green light after some necessary paperwork and phone calls. Just like that, within the span of a single week, I had all the necessary approvals to make this impromptu self-adventure a reality. Shocking, indeed.

With all the necessary approvals in hand, I wasted no time. I swiftly purchased a plane ticket for the following Sunday, flying out from Baltimore to London. Anticipating my biggest hurdles, I tackled them head-on: securing my plane ticket, lodging, and a round-trip day train ticket. I knew that if I could nail down these three essentials, the entire trip would start to take shape. In terms of finances, I managed to snag all three items combined for a mere grand. Now, don’t get me wrong—I wasn’t living it up at the Ritz Carlton. Instead, I opted for a more budget-friendly option: a hostel above a pub in Shoreditch, a vibrant neighborhood in London. At just around 40 bucks a night, it was a steal; and if there are two things that I love most in this world, its beer and Warhammer.

As Sunday night descended, my wife dropped me off at BWI, and I embarked on a red-eye flight bound for London, with a layover in Iceland adding an unexpected twist to the journey. Despite my extensive flying experience, this particular flight proved to be one for the books. Peering out of my window, I was greeted by the breathtaking sight of Greenland’s icy expanse as the early morning light cast a mesmerizing glow. Upon touching down in Iceland, however, I received less-than-ideal news: my next flight was delayed by a whopping 8 hours, leaving me stranded in the Keflavik airport. Yet, surprisingly, I found myself unfazed by the setback. After all, there are certainly worse places to be marooned than in Iceland. To pass the time, I indulged in a few early morning beers, sampled some delectable Icelandic Pizza (a culinary delight!), and embraced my inner nomad by catching some shut-eye for the next five hours. Despite the unexpected delay, I couldn’t help but appreciate the unique experience unfolding before me.

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Photo I took over Greenland
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Sleeping off a few in Keflavik

Arriving in London late on a Monday afternoon, I wasted no time immersing myself in the vibrant energy of the city. With nothing but a trusty raincoat and my rucksack, I navigated the bustling streets, hopping on a shuttle (the Tube) from the airport to Liverpool Street Station. From there, a brief stroll led me to my humble abode for the night—a cozy hostel. After checking in, I rewarded myself with a well-deserved pint downstairs at the pub before calling it a night.

The next morning dawned bright and early, with a thrilling agenda awaiting me: a journey to the legendary Warhammer World in Nottingham. Armed with my faithful rucksack, I took the Tube to Paddington Station, where I boarded the East Midlands Railway (EMR) bound for my destination. The scenic two-hour train ride whisked me away to Nottingham, where I embarked on a picturesque half-hour walk along the serene river, finally arriving at the hallowed grounds of Warhammer World.

As I stepped foot inside, a sense of accomplishment washed over me. After nearly two decades of yearning, I had finally made it. For the next six hours, I savored every moment, immersing myself in the sights, scents, and exhibits that surrounded me. From leisurely strolls through the exhibit hall to perusing the offerings in the store, to soaking in the vibrant atmosphere of the gaming hall, I was in my element. A few pints and a hearty lunch at Bugman’s Bar only added to the euphoria of the experience.

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My favorite exhibit in the Exhibition Hall

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This ridiculous Burger I ordered for Lunch at Bugman’s Bar. It was amazing.

But alas, all good things must come to an end. Reluctantly, I bid farewell to Warhammer World, walking back to the train station and embarking on the return journey back to London. As the train whisked me away, I couldn’t help but reflect on the incredible journey I had just undertaken—a journey that had taken me from the comforts of my home in Maryland, USA, to the very heart of my long-held dreams. It was a feeling like no other, and I relished every moment of it.

For my final two days in London, I fully embraced my inner tourist, immersing myself in the rich tapestry of experiences the city had to offer. From the storied walls of the Tower of London to the spine-tingling thrills of the London Dungeon—an absolute must-see, by the way—I left no stone unturned in my quest for adventure.

With boundless energy and an insatiable curiosity, I traversed the city streets, weaving through iconic landmarks like Buckingham Palace and delving into the depths of world-class museums that housed treasures from centuries past. Along the way, I found myself forging new connections, striking up conversations with fellow travelers and locals alike, each encounter adding a vibrant hue to the canvas of my London adventure. Of course, no exploration of London would be complete without indulging in its vibrant pub culture. With a pint in hand, I raised a toast to new experiences and cherished memories, savoring the camaraderie and warmth that permeated each bustling establishment.

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Photo I took of Parliament

As the sun set on my final evening in this captivating city, I couldn’t help but reflect on the whirlwind of experiences that had unfolded over the past several days. With a sense of fulfillment and contentment, I bid farewell to London, knowing that I had seized every opportunity and embraced every moment to the fullest. And so, as Friday morning dawned, I embarked on the journey homeward, my heart brimming with gratitude for the memories made and the adventures shared. England had left an indelible mark on my soul, and as I soared through the skies, I carried with me the essence of this remarkable journey—a journey of discovery, connection, and boundless exploration.

From meticulously planning each step to navigating unexpected delays and serendipitous encounters, every moment has been a testament to the beauty of embracing the unknown. Warhammer World provided a sanctuary for my passion, while London’s historic landmarks and vibrant culture offered a tapestry of experiences unlike any other. All this at a cost around 1300 USD. As I bid farewell to London and head home, I’m filled with gratitude for the memories made and the lessons learned. I am grateful to share these experiences and insights with other hobbyists searching for Warhammer World and looking to embark on their own journey. This adventure reignited my passion for exploration and reminded me of the power of seizing every opportunity . So much so that I even made the trip two more time since then. Here’s to the journey—the highs, the lows, and everything in between. 

Joe R.

Welcome back everyone! Last month was quite the spread of hobby related projects (I might have snuck a few in from previous months). This month is quite different! However, things are ramping up in preparation for a Blood Bowl tournament in Canada!

Heartsdale Hedonists – Chaos Chosen, Blood Bowl

Those of you who read through last month will recognize this heading already. I was preparing for a Blood Bowl tournament in Roanoke VA (the Big Lick Brawl). I had decided to outfit my Chaos Chosen with an Ogre instead of the traditional Minotaur. However, I didn’t have one of those painted! That wouldn’t have been a huge deal, except I paid a fellow named Rawlin to paint my Chaos Chosen team around 10 years ago. I wanted to paint my Ogre to match (as closely as I could manage) to the existing team.

Here is the minotaur from the team, Aurum Barre, that I am trying to match with the Ogre. I do my best painting when I am experimenting with new skills or pushing myself outside of my small comfort zone. Last month I showed a zenithal highlight of the ogre, some putty work to try matching the basing, and some initial glazing.

  I spent roughly another week on the Ogre, who I named Argenti Barre, from the last update. I continued to glaze some additional layers onto the skin and generally block in the few spaces without any color. I was very

pleased with the skin, HOWEVER, I definitely think it would benefit from a few additional passes on the highlights. I’m not going to fret.

 

At this point, I was pretty pleased with the product. The pink tones did NOT match, but I didn’t think it was going to be distracting enough for folks to call it out. I started working on the base. Again, I don’t think it matches completely, but it’s close enough. I was about to call it done when I decided to add a blood effect to the hand (just like the Minotaur has!). You can see the results below. Again, I was very pleased with the effect. I varnished this model! I almost never do that! To finish off, I decided to use a gloss varnish on the metal surfaces and the shoulder pad. I think it looks pretty cool.

 

 

Overall, Argenti did very well at Big Lick Brawl. He even got a few compliments, especially from people who know my track record with finishing things.

The Moot Points – Halflings, Blood Bowl

Okay! Here we go! Halflings are one of my favorite teams in Blood Bowl. Not because they are a particularly amazing team, but because they come with their own built-in vibe. You might say, “Joe… don’t all stunty teams come with the same vibe?” No random internet person! I’ve had a lot of success with Ogres, so when I play Ogres I’m playing to win. Halflings? Not so much. This is my fun, maybe I’ll win, but I’m just here for a great time. Why? Well, every one of my team members is based off a different superhero. They are all painted to reflect the hero they represent. This means I can directly look at the model and know who it is. This has led to some legends on the team. Michael John Custard (Booster Gold) is a ball hog but tends to pull off the big plays when I need them. Thor Odinsoup can take punches on the line all day and rarely get injured. This team was produced by Willy Miniatures through a Kickstarter several years ago. They are sculpted by Pedro Ramos, who is one of my favorite creatives working in Blood Bowl.

 

A few of us from the Northern Virginia area are headed up to Ottawa for the Amorical Cup in early June. The Amorical Cup is designed to be a North American Team tournament for Blood Bowl. It was supposed to occur in 2020, but obviously that didn’t happen. Now it’s back! I thought it would be nice to give the Moot Points a fresh coat of paint and make them look a little more dynamic if we’re going to travel to a different country for Blood Bowl. I painted this team years ago. In this case, “painted” means I base coated them. They look fine on the table, but I know with a little TLC they could look so much better.

 

Unfortunately, I forgot to take BEFORE pictures of the miniatures I’m presenting today. I’ll make sure to grab those for the next batch. Overall, I need to touch-up 13 Halflings, 2 Treemen, and the star player Griff Oberwald.

 

I had recently picked up a few triads from Two Thin Coats (Black to dark grey, Ivory to white, wave 1 greens) and wanted to test out those paints. So I selected my Batman Halfling, Bruce Wyne. Bruce’s main colors are Grey and black, with yellow and blue as secondary colors. I wasn’t planning to glaze this time, so I expected the highlights to come across a little more cartoony than Argenti. I did REALLY like glazing the Vallejo Red-Violet into the skin recesses, so I started with that. I cleaned up all of the basecoats. They had accumulated a lot of chips and I had applied a very sloppy wash, which had really dulled the colors. I worked the skin a bit. It’s not my best work, but it’s definitely better than it was.

 

 

You can see I had a little trouble highlighting the black, especially on the helmet and shoulder pad. I still haven’t figured out how to highlight spheres. So I basically edge highlighted and picked out a few bright highlights. I suspect this will be a problem with the whole team. I was really pleased with the yellow highlights. You can really see them on the shoulder pad, but they ended up really helping the model pop.

Finally, I finished by basing the model with Geek Gaming Scenics spring “sawdust grass”. I just applied a layer of semi thick PVA and dunked it into the sawdust. So far, it’s been pretty durable. I will definitely add a white Blood Bowl lines (time permitting) once the team has been cleaned up.

 

 

Then I jumped over to Bisquey Batson (Shazam! Or Captain Marvel for you comics OGs out there). Bisquey had the same problems as Bruce. Again, I started by glazing red violet into the recesses of the skin and then brightening the skin up. Then I started working on the whites. I’m pretty sure the basecoat color was the grey from the old citadel foundation paints. I wanted to preserve some of that color in the shadows. I… didn’t do a great job. I used Ulthuan Grey as the next highlight, which REALLY popped the whites. I finished with some very limited highlights from Two Thin Coats Trooper White. I’m still working on Bisquey’s reds and golds, but he’s definitely moved up in the world. I am planning to finish him this week and get him based.

 

 Next up? Thor Odinsoup is on deck!

 

 

A Tale of Many Warlords- January

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Howdy Readers! Welcome to January’s issue of A Tale of Many Warlords. Lets waste no time and get right into introductions, First up we have the Master of Disaster, and a very good friend of mine- Mike!

Mike P

An Epic Saga of Mike’s Miniatures: A Tale of Battlefields and Brushes 

In today’s opening exploration, we delve into a topic that captivates the mind and sparks curiosity. Join me on this journey as we unravel the intricacies and discover the nuances of bringing Warhammer to life. From its historical roots to its contemporary relevance , we embark on a thoughtful exploration that aims to deepen our understanding and ignite meaningful conversation along the way. Welcome to a journey of discovery and enlightenment with our exploration my Hobby. 

Rewind to two decades back, my journey into the realms of Warhammer began during the days of my youth in Middle School. It was a defining moment when I laid eyes on my inaugural Warhammer Models – the gallant Bretonnians, encased in the enchanting allure of an ancient Battalion Box.

From that pivotal moment, I found myself utterly captivated. The allure of the hobby became irresistible, compelling me to immerse myself in any way possible. I embarked on my inaugural journey, assembling my first army – the Warhammer Fantasy Vampire Counts. I eagerly earned every penny, even raking leaves and mowing lawns for a chance to expand my collection. The enchantment deepened as I delved into the mesmerizing pages of army books, developing a profound love for the old world and everything associated with Warhammer and Games Workshop. So intense was this passion that it led me to start another army, and thus, my quest for amassing an Empire Army began.

From the enchanting realms of Warhammer Fantasy, my passion for the hobby flourished. A delightful memory that still echoes in my mind is attending the Midnight Release/Mega Battle for ‘Battle of Skull Pass’ back in 2006 – an event immortalized by the poster that proudly adorns my collection (still can be seen in the above photo). As the years unfolded, I expanded my horizons, assembling an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) Army for Warhammer 40,000 and delving deeply into the Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game during my High School days. The pinnacle of my Warhammer Gaming golden age unfolded between 2007 and 2011, where playing all three systems at a Games Workshop at the Bel Air, MD store became the epitome of my tabletop adventures. I mean I was there every Saturday, every Sunday, and when I was finally able to drive I was there on week nights too. Reflecting on those years, every game I play today carries the spirit and memories of that golden era. 

Then came the first heartbreak in my hobby journey: the closure of my local Games Workshop. A familiar sorrow for many seasoned hobbyists, it marked a somber and perplexing chapter. Determined not to relinquish what had become a significant part of my life, I persevered by redirecting my hobby pilgrimage to a store thirty minutes south, nestled in White Marsh, MD. Far from surrendering, I took a leap and applied to join the store as a part-time employee. To my delight, I secured the role and served as a part-time team member at the White Marsh Games Workshop from 2012 to 2013. Every moment was a joy, engaging in discussions about the hobby with longstanding enthusiasts, newcomers, and everyone in between. It was more than a job; it was my calling.

Regrettably, in 2013, that shop met a similar fate when it was closed down by Headquarters. This event marked the onset of what many seasoned hobbyists refer to as the ‘Hobby Dark Ages.’ It’s a phase where we still cherish the hobby but find ourselves detached, not keeping up with it as passionately as we’d like. It’s a shared experience among enthusiasts, a period of hiatus that everyone eventually encounters. My own Hobby Dark Ages persisted until 2017 when I had the pleasure of meeting new hobby buddies. This rekindled my fervor, and I once again found myself deeply drawn to being an integral part of this vibrant and awesome community.

Since then, I’ve had the pleasure of connecting with amazing individuals within various Warhammer hobby communities. My journey has taken me to tournaments and events spanning the United States and even across the pond to the United Kingdom. Throughout, I’ve remained dedicated to crafting my own Warhammer hobby experience to the best of my abilities. 

Continuing my journey, I’ve taken a proactive approach by crafting my own hobby bucket list. This endeavor has led me to exciting experiences such as attending Adepticon, Las Vegas Open, and Warhammer World not once, but twice—stories that deserve articles of their own, reserved for another time. Among the aspirations on my bucket list, one goal stands out prominently—I am determined to establish and sustain my own podcast. In fact, a few years ago, I ventured into podcasting, creating my own show. Despite the initial enthusiasm, it didn’t progress beyond the third episode, but this setback only fuels my determination to make it a success in the future.

At present, my journey in the Warhammer Hobby is thriving. Nestled in the depths of my basement, I’ve curated a captivating hobby room—a haven where creativity and passion converge. Bolstered by a steadfast circle of hobby friends, our collective enthusiasm fuels the vibrant exchange of ideas and inspiration. Fueled by a resolute drive, I am unwavering in my commitment to advance my quest within the Warhammer Hobby. The combination of a dedicated space, a supportive network of friends, and an unyielding determination sets the stage for an exciting and fulfilling continuation of my Warhammer journey.

My Now Basement 2024: A gaming and hobby hideaway with full 6×4 table, towers of painted miniatures (some are hidden on that back wall), and a painting station to keep those creative juices flowing. It’s something that Ive always wanted- working 20 years for and is still a continued work in progress.

In closing, as I continue to embark on the ongoing journey of these articles, my aim is to delve into topics that currently captivate my attention as well as that of the audiences. Beyond sharing my personal projects (currently working on Warhammer Old World), I am eager to address questions that may linger in the minds of fellow hobbyists. Curious about the experience of conventions like Nova Open or Adepticon? Wondering about the logistics of a North American hobbyist making their pilgrimage to Warhammer World? These are the queries I aim to explore and demystify.

Warhammer World: This was the first picture that I took as I hopped out of my taxi in 2022.

If you have your own ideas or burning questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me on Instagram @middleearth_mike. I’m here to engage with the community and bring forth content that resonates with your interests and inquiries. Until then, be good to each other and keep on hobbying.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Mike has to show us this year, an incredible painter, I have a feeling we will be seeing an incredible Warhammer: Old World dwarf army coming from him this year.

Next Up we have a new friend of mine and another longtime Warhammer enthusiast-Kevin!

About Me

I am a 38-year-old college professor and suburban dad of three. While I did a little bit of miniature wargaming in middle school, my real hobbyist career started after college for me, over 15 years ago. My very first army was Bretonnians, and while I have collected many armies since then, they have always remained my first love.

Granted, I was not a very good painter back then. This was just when Foundation Paints were just coming out (those are “Base Paints” for the youths), and so I was delighted with just doing one layer of paint and being done. I did try to paint all the knights different colors though.

About ten years ago, I sold (almost) my whole army. I just had my first kid, and I was not getting any games in, so I decided to sell the army and clear off some space. 

I have regretted it ever since. The only painted miniature I have left from that army is one standard bearer on Pegasus, because I loved how the model turned out. It’s not my best, but I remain quite proud of it.

What I have been working on recently

I have admittedly really gotten into skirmish games these past two years, namely Kill Team, Necromunda, and Blood Bowl. A lot of folks in my area play these games, so I’ve been very motivated to get some miniatures on the table. As an added benefit to the Kill Team boxes, I was able to add to my terrain reservoir, which will hopefully come in handy with the games I have planned next year.

Some of the kill teams have been truly fun to paint, and less taxing than painting a whole army. Below are some of my favorites.

I have also started collecting an army for Epic…. Sorry, “Legions Imperialis”.

Another army that I have sold and regretted selling was my rather large Vostroyan 40K army, so I decided to recreate my Vostroyans in 30K (even though technically they did not participate in the Heresy).I’m not as excited about this army as I am about Bretonnians, but my friends are gearing up for a campaign so I figured I’d join in.

What will I be working on?

The number one hobby goal I have this year is to rebuild my Bretonnian army, only better. My main goal is to have each knight in its own heraldry, which much more thoughtful layouts of the coats of arms. I will be aiming to make some progress on these guys each month, hopefully a unit a month.

In addition to this project, I have a few other small projects to split up in between. Two Blood Bowl teams (Norse and Halflings), two kill teams (Votann and Kasrkin), and a new Necromunda gang (Cawdor) to split up my hobby work. I’m hoping I can share pictures of al of these guys as I complete them.

Kevin’s enthusiasm for his Brettonians has been palpable, and I think we have a lot to look forward to as we watch him recreate his army of yesteryear.

Michael S.

About Me

I walked into a Games Workshop for the first time about 16 years ago with no idea how much fun I’d have immersing myself in all of the aspects the hobby has to offer. From playing, painting, and reading as many Black Library novels as I can get my hands on, I’ve spent countless hours enjoying 40k and Age of Sigmar alike. Like many long-time fans, I’ve picked up and put down the hobby for periods. My most recent return to the hobby was in 2018, shortly after the release of 40K’s 8th Edition. I always tried to make time for hobbying during college, but it wasn’t until after I moved back to my hometown that I was able to make time for more regular hobbying and gaming sessions with friends.

Just over 5 years later, I find myself still enjoying the hobby just as much as I used to! Gaming and hobby sessions find themselves farther apart these days, but I still find myself coming back to miniature wargames when I get some free time.

What Have I Been Doing Lately

In the past year, I jumped on the Horus Heresy train. I had a great time playing my first few games and got a little in over my head reinforcing the 14th legion before my Age of Darkness box was fully painted.

In addition to making steady progress on my Heresy army, I’ve picked up a small Malifaux crew to hopefully get into some non-GW wargames. Putting the tiny models together was an absolute pain, but the sculpts themselves are beautiful!

In between larger goals I’ve also been taking time to work on unpainted units and develop a method for painting large units quickly. I’m guilty of having plenty of unpainted miniatures and getting far too invested in the details when I do get around to painting. I’ve been working on staying motivated and making sure I move quickly through rank-and-file minis so I can play with a fully painted army.

What Will I be working on?

Since the announcement of the Old World, I’ve been looking forward to finally getting a taste of Warhammer Fantasy. I was always too much of a sci-fi fanboy during Fantasy’s heyday to delve into the game, but in the past few years, I took a dive into Age of Sigmar and found a lot to love about the game. After playing a handful of games (and pouting about the double-turn), AoS quickly became my favorite wargame. When Fantasy’s return was announced, I immediately knew what army I would play…

You can expect to see lots of updates from me on the building, basing, and painting of the Old World’s spookiest skeletons.

Between updates and posts about my Tomb Kings force, I’ll also be aiming to include various smaller projects from my collection including various 40k and Sigmar models to break up the monotony. Here are a handful of pieces in various stages of completion that I am excited about.

Austin

About Me

I was introduced to the hobby by a friend of mine during middle school, soon to be 15 years back, when he brought in a Games Workshop catalogue. I was immediately enamored and begged my parents to let me begin playing, and for my birthday that year they brought me to the local GW and I picked out the Battle for Skull Pass set, with my initial focus being mainly on the Dwarfs. While I had a bit of a hobby low period in 2013 and 2014, by 2015, now having a job and no sense of finances, my hobby really kicked into high gear. The rest is history, and I have been playing not only Games Workshop games, but all manner of miniature games ever since – though now with a bit more restraint to my budget!

Over the past few years in particular, I have actually moved away from the likes of 40k and Age of Sigmar. While I have kept up with the Specialist Games, A lot of my hobby focus has shifted instead towards historical gaming. I have been thoroughly enjoying the likes of Black Powder and Bolt Action. Some of my friends are even musing over Pike and Shotte, so maybe we will see some of that from me in the coming months…

What Have I Been Doing Lately?

Over the past few years, I have committed myself to a myriad of projects, some of which have been false starts, and others of which I am very proud of. In terms of completion of projects this past year, I am all over the place – something which I am trying to remedy – but I have been able to complete several larger-scale projects, including two more Lord of the Rings forces: Theodred’s Guard, led by my converted Prince Theodred, and a Doubles half for the Black Gate Opens (which I plan to eventually make into a full army). I’ve also gotten a very solid amount of Prussians done for Black Powder.

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In between the larger projects, I have been working occasionally on smaller ones, such as Blood Bowl teams and Necromunda gangs, as well as loads of Battlemechs. Though again, some false starts do mean I am left with some of these only partially completed, while others remain in-progress as palate cleansers.

Of course, my pride and joy of this past year has to be my Legions Imperialis force. This is perhaps my fastest force I have taken to completion, breezing through a fully 3000 points in only a few weeks. That said, I still have more to work on for it, including several Titans, as well as upcoming releases to bolster my forces and provide much needed transportation and fire support…

What Will I Be Working On?

Like some of the others here, the announcement of the Old World has brought me much excitement and jubilation. Initially, my plans were going to simply be to rebase and finish painting my Dark Elves, which would have been a fairly simple task as they are mostly complete. But as I was organizing my “pile of shame” and figuring what I could sell or what I wanted to keep, I came across a box of the new Age of Sigmar Squig Hoppers, reminding me of my start in the hobby with the Battle for Skull Pass set. And when a friend mentioned he was trying to get rid of a horde of those BFSP Night Goblins, I knew what I had to so. And so my main hobby goal will be the completion of a Night Goblin horde, the opposite side to the force I began with all those years ago! And I have even finished a test model!

Between my progress on the madcap maniacs, I’ll also be aiming to complete more models for my Corpse Grinder Cult gang, to aid in my group’s ongoing campaign, as well as finish off my Vampire and College of Life teams for Blood and Dungeon Bowl respectively. I will also likely work towards my initial plan of finishing off my Dark Elves, and updating them for the Old World – though perhaps much more slowly than initially anticipated. Besides that, some more Legions Imperialis will likely fly off my painting desk, and I even have some terrain in the works for that game that I am excited to show you all! Otherwise, who knows what else I will do in the meantime? I still have more mechs, as well as Italians, and Prussians, and even some sneaky magpies, that all need to get done eventually. Though whether the horde of cloaked hooligans will give me time for them or not is yet to be seen…

Jerry

After reading through these awesome write-ups and looking at some incredible models, I gotta say how excited I am to see the progress of each of these talented grog nards through the year. I will bring up the rear this time by giving a brief intro to who I am, how I got here in my Warhammer journey and how I plan to use 2024 to make some hobby progress.

I began my Warhammer journey about 20 years ago with the Lord of the Rings: Fellowship of the Ring starter set; I was instantly hooked.

Fast forward a few years and I discovered my number one love: The Imperial Guard in 40k. I’ve collected four Imperial Guard armies in the 15 years since, painting several hundred infantry and scores of vehicles.

Gaunt’s Ghosts! The novels were a key factor and I’ve luckily been able to grab a small group of the old metals over the past few years.
A Sample of Steel Legion that I finished a few years ago. I’m always looking for additions to this group so there may be more of these on the way if I snag a good deal.
A small group of Catachan that I painted previously, never did decide on a basing style for this group.
I’ve decided to spare you from going over my whole Cadian force but I cannot go over my hobby history without sharing my Cadians. Here is a sample of the whole force but I assure you, the above group does not even scratch the surface of my Cadian collection.

While the Guard was my first, greatest love, there has been other projects that have piqued my interest. I have spent a lot of time painting and playing Lord of the Rings and more recently the Horus Heresy. I actually just finished my second Horus Heresy army, a small Zone Mortalis Word Bearers force.

A small contingent of the Word Bearers force I finished late in 2023.
My pride and joy, one of two Warhound Titans I finished this year.

Like several of my other warlords, my recent interest has been focused on the new Legion Imperialis and Warhammer: The Old World. For most of the next year, my focus will be on building, painting, and hopefully playing a new army for each of these systems.

For Legions Imperialis I eagerly await the release of bikes of all variety to begin a small White Scars force. For The Old World, I intend to finish the Tomb Kings army I began over 10 years ago. I am incredibly excited for these two games as the predecessors of each game were discontinued before I expanded my hobby away from Warhammer 40k.

Knowing me, I doubt my attention will be completely focused on Epic White Scars and the Monarchs of Khemri. My mind already wanders to other projects in the world of Warhammer Fantasy….The Empire sure does look good these days. I also have a veritable mountain of terrain that needs work for Horus Heresy. Oh and one other project that looms large above my desk…

A little preview of a project that may take my attention this year.

Thank you for reading the first installment of A Tale of Many Warlords! Now that we all know each other and have our feet under us, I look forward to seeing what my fellow warlords have in store for this year.

Please feel free to leave a comment below on what you think, what are you looking forward to the most? What models should the warlords paint first? Let us know below!

As we go through this journey, I’ll also be sharpening my WordPress skills so I ask that you please comment any issues or suggestions for me below.

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A New Year, and a New Focus

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Hello, and happy new year! With the new year always comes new ideas, goals or aspirations and this year was no different. When I started this blog last year, I didn’t really have a focus in mind, the goal being to write about the things I enjoy and share that with an audience of people that are interested in what I have to say.

As the year went along, I found I really enjoyed two things, writing movie reviews, and writing about my wargaming and painting. Sharing my hobby has been both cathartic and also a good way to keep myself motivated. Even when I haven’t been posting, I have been watching movies, and painting models.

So as I sit here in the new year, I have decided on a new format for this blog. I would love to provide more content for my followers, expand the participation in the hobby, and also to keep me and hopefully others more motivated to paint, play and to write about the hobby journey.

With that in mind, let me announce the focus of Urban Cowboy Hobbies for 2024…

A Tale of Several Warlords

Some of you may be familiar with the idea of a “Tale of Four Warlords” but if you are not, let me give you an introduction. A couple decades ago, a popular magazine in the hobby space named after a certain dwarf started a series called, as you might guess, “A Tale of Four Warlords” the idea of this series was simple, four hobbyists came together at the beginning of the year and made a solemn vow to each work on a hobby project that interested them and then post updates and pictures each month to document their progress. This series proved to be quiet successful, both as an interesting read, and as a tool to get the Warlords’ armies finished.

With the memory of those brave hobbyists in mind, I along with “several” other warlords will be embarking on a similar journey. As of today, I have four others planning on sharing this experience with me, and the initial update will be coming before the end of the month. My promise to you the readers will be to provide updates, hopefully at least once a month, maybe more! I will also be on the hunt for other hobbyists to provide some one off content, or possibly even join the monthly series!

PS: I will still be writing periodic content for other things as it fits me(probably mostly movie reviews). My lack of focus continues, don’t you worry.

Wargaming Update: End of August Edition

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¡Hello and bienvenido! it’s been a pretty wild August for me. I’ve been on the road for over half of the month which has been a real roller coaster. Taking some time hanging out in Orlando airport to write up some of my hobby accomplishments this month and put some goals for September out into the world.

Legio Tempestor Reaver Titan epic scale

First up, we start small. This was my first mini in this scale, I’ve always enjoyed the Reaver titan and this was a great introduction to the scale. I’m looking to pick up some transfers before I add some weathering details so expect to see this guy again.

Little disappointed that the rest of the minis for new Epic are delayed but realistically I was never going to find the time to paint anything in the meantime.

Next up we have the bulk of my painting progress this month. I’ve had the below Valkyries sitting in my display waiting for me to find the time to paint them all year. Well I finally got tired of looking at the three unpainted aircraft.

Flight of the Valkyries

The first of the three planes had been finished to a tabletop standard but not yet based as I, as typical, could not make up my mind on how I wanted to set the scene for my project. First thing I did then was get my bases sanded and then painted. I’ll try to grab some better pictures in my next update as I’m quite happy with the desert feel these bases portray.

Valkyrie #1

I snagged a couple more pictures of the first two completed Valkyries above and below, as you can see I stuck with a very basic khaki color for the hull. I utilized my airbrush to spray zandri dust over a grey primer. This yielded a more worn look to the paint, perfect for sand blasted metals.

Valkyrie #2

You cannot tell as well in the pictures but I worked to create a transition on cockpit glass but I think I’m going to increase the vibrancy of the blue, hopefully bringing out the effect even further. Stay tuned for more updates for these planes as I still have one more flier to add to this squadron.

Next up we have the beginnings of a Horus Heresy White Scars army. Big fan of these guys in the novels and I wanted to challenge myself to paint some white miniatures.

Starting the building process, I decided to build a squad of tactical marines, always a good choice. Led by Qin Xa, a beautiful model that I picked up from the Warhammer Cafe at the demand of my girlfriend- a real keeper she is.

To finish off this month’s building efforts, I started with the real meat and potatoes of a White Scars horde- Bikes! Three of the awesome plastic jet bikes and 6 resin outriders to start. I’ve got 21 total outriders so stay tuned to see those as I’m sure I will be working on this force off and on to finish up the year.

Building a Lucius Pattern Warhound Titan

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Hello! This weekend I was left on my own by the lady and in a desperate gambit to avoid housework I decided to build my second Warhound Titan. This has the double effect of opening space in my closet of shame for my inevitable Legions Imperialis purchases, as well as giving me a little extra practice with resin ahead of my Reaver titan build (ETA December).

Almost every warhammer fan who has ever seen a titan in person before has fallen in love with them. In the lore, on the tabletop and in a display case, these massive models really showcase the scale, and absurdity of the Warhammer universe to the fore.

I have been lucky enough so see quite a few titans in person, and even luckier to acquire 3 of my own. 2 Warhounds and a Reaver titan. The two Warhounds titans are now built and I’m planning out the task of painting these incredible models now. The Reaver titan, my pride and joy, still remains in its box waiting for the day I’m brave enough to assemble it.

I picked up my Two Lucius pattern Warhounds about 18 months ago right after Adepticon 2022. I built and “painted” the first one last September in 2 weeks ahead of NOVA here in Virginia but tore it down to add magnets for stability and ease of transport about 2 months ago. The lessons I learned during that first build have gone a long way to helping me in this build.

I’ve always been drawn to the blocky shapes of the Lucius Pattern that you are about to see take shape but the Mars pattern that is more commonly seen is also stunning in person!

All the parts (wow that’s a lot) drying after their wash

The first step when dealing with resin models is to wash them in warm soapy water. This removes any mold release that has stuck to the parts. This mold release will hurt the adhesive properties of any paint that you use later in the painting phase.

The torso being dry fitted before adding pins and some more of the interior detail.

I personally like starting with the torso with my warhound titans. The instructions and common school of thought is that starting with the legs is the wiser move. I think a completed torso is easier to pose on top of the legs and helps you get a better idea of how the finished model will look.

Something to note, I don’t add the head or arms until the end as you will want to pose these after seeing how your legs are positioned.

The completed torso

The Lucius pattern has a tendency to warp pretty bad on these torso parts so make sure you dry fit these pieces before setting them together.

As you can see here, there are quite a few panel gaps that I have needed to address with green stuff. This is normal in my experience. These older Forgeworld kits were made without the benefit of CAD software and as such don’t usually fit together as well as we would like.

Next up- the feet! Now the feet on the Warhound titan are awesome. The possibilities are endless with the posing as each toe joint needs to be posed individually.

With this incredible range of choice comes difficulty though as there is I believe 27 parts in each foot. Each of the main toes requiring 6 resin parts and 3 brass pins to come together.

The feet are probably the most tricky part of this model due to the aforementioned part quantity as well as the simple fact that the feet must support the whole model’s weight. This means that pinning is essential for this step. I’ve seen a few Warhounds without pinned feet and after months or years of tension, the resin begins to sag.

This means that you shouldn’t follow the age old adage “measure twice cut once”. Measure thrice cut once. (And use JB weld not super glue to be safe)

The feet are done and now it’s time to build the legs

As you can see in the above pictures. I’ve decided on a striding pose for this Warhound. This titan is supposed to be quick and I want it to look like it’s running. I wouldn’t recommend this for your first titan as there are some more challenges associated with it but I’m not your father.

The legs are relatively quick compared to the feet. I like to use a sticky tack to help me dry fit all the leg joints to give me an idea of how the joints will be angled in the finished product.

Once you have your pose, time to bring out the JBweld once more. I like to do each joint individually, letting each dry fully before moving onto the next. This helps keep me honest and prevent any major mistakes with posing as you can always correct any slight errors on the next section.

The finished legs, fully striding. Perfection.

As you can see, the legs are done! I’ve kept the hips pistons and the leg armor off for the time being. I like to add the pistons on last as they are dependent on how the legs are posed. whereas the armor will only be attached with tack until I get this painted.

You can also see a hole on the top of the hips. This is for a quarter inch magnet that will secured the legs to the torso. If you have any intention in gaming with your titan, I suggest magnetizing the hips and arms for ease of transport.

The torso on the legs. Perfect
A better picture of the pose, as well as a size comparison with one of my ultramarines.
The mostly finished product. (Hoses still need to be attached)

The head and the arms are the last steps and once you’ve gotten through the legs they are a cakewalk. Since we’ve decided to magnetize them all that needs to be done is to JBweld your magnets in place. Be careful with the polarization, you don’t want to mess that up.

I hope this guide has been helpful. I love these older titan models and after this model I am feeling much more comfortable ahead of my reaver titan build coming up this winter.

Hoping to get this beauty painted along with its partner in the next few months.

Cities of Death: Painting a Sector Imperialis Realm of Battle

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Hello! This article will be about the largest painting project I have written about on this blog thus far. Last year I had the privilege of acquiring a Sector Imperialis Realm of Battle board. This was the first, and biggest, step of the years-long project of acquiring, building, and painting all of the necessary terrain needed to create the Cities of Death board of my dreams.

For those of you that aren’t aware, Cities of Death was a Campaign book released by games workshop in 2003 highlighting how to play games of Warhammer 40k in the cities of the far future. Filled to the brim with pictures and artwork of beautiful terrain pieces, this book really inspired me to make a city board of my own.

Years later, I’ve been in the building stage of my city for over a year now, acquiring and building structures of all shapes and sizes. A healthy mix of buildings both old and new, along with an ever increasing pile of scatter terrain are the starting point for this project but I plan on adding to this table for years to come.

This post will cover the painting process for the base 6×4 board that will eventually become a full size city battlescape.

The beginning, a nice black base coat
Basecoated all the concrete with Skavenblight Dinge
Added some random green and brown splotches to break up the grey
Dry brushed first Administratum grey and then Ushabti Bone
Time to begin the roads, washed the road tiles with Athonian Camoshade, Nuln oil, and Agrax Earthshade
Dry brushed the road with Administratum grey
Time to start the metals! Leadbelcher mostly with some Warplock bronze and Balthasar gold to break it up
All of the metallics got a wash with a mix of different washes. Sidewalks with Nuln Oil mixed with Camoshade, Agrax Earthshade and Mortarion Grime. And the rest with the same mix without the Nuln Oil
All of the metallics got an all over drybrush of Necron Alloy. Also through on a coat of Zandrio Dust over the skulls that dot the board.

Finally done! This project ended up taking a lot longer than I originally thought, taking me 3 weeks of hobby time. Happy to be done and absolutely love the finished product! Stay tuned for the next posts as we bring this board vertical!

Bonus picture of the board for tonight’s game! Looking good so far…just need to build and paint those buildings!

Wargaming Update 5/24

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Hello all! A smaller update this week, mainly due to technical issues.

Tyranid Trygon

Finished the Trygon for my ongoing Tyranid force. The biggest of all the bugs I’ll be painting. Liked how he turned out, this model has been a favorite of mine since it came out in the early 2010’s.

Terrain Build

After each finished Tyranid unit, my goal is to work on some of the ever increasing terrain backlog. Hopefully before the year ends I will have it all done…hopefully….

3 Statues

Sector Imperialis Objective Markers

Thermic Plasma Regulators

That’s all I got done since I last posted. Hope to get some more done this week. Working on another gaggle of Gaunts this week. My desk lamp died last week so I replaced it with a much brighter, larger model. Hopefully I see some improvements from that. Let me know what you guys think below!