How time flies!

3 years ago I was deep into the Oldhammer vibe and umpiring a vicious game of Rogue Trader between Curis and Tears of Envy.  With added lichen!

I love the smell of model railway shops in the morning.

Wise words

Really I just wanted to link this blogpost from Tears of Envy: Just Shut Up and Do It

I agree pretty much 100% with the philosophy of doing ANY painting is better than none.  I am not a particularly gifted painter AT ALL, and my most regular gaming partners are also paragons of the craft but I have had to learn to suck it up and realise that getting figures painted, done and down on the table has a satisfaction all of it's own.

No, I will never win Crystal Brush or Golden Daemon but dammit I can field fully painted armies and warbands and that makes me proud.

New year, new projects

Well, turns out I have managed to get involved with two new games and it is only January!  The release of Battle Companies for the Lord of the Rings SBG is exactly what I have wanted for the system for a long time, so I took the plunge and am painting up some nasty goblins from the mountains:

Love this design of goblin.  One of the few things the Hobbit films got right.

And then there is also the game I swore I wouldn't play. Shadespire.  Turns out it absolutely ticks all my boxes, gives me small, self contained painting projects and lets me get in many games, fast.

Just so elegant a game!

In fact it has so taken me, I have signed up to the Grand Clash in March. My first ever tournament in 25 years of the hobby!

A game from the past!

Well, last year anyway. I am so bad at reporting the games I played.

Managed to catch up with Curis over the Christmas holiday and played an Age of Sigmar Skirmish game against him.  Like the previous game versus Tears we played the Treasure Hunt scenario (a favourite!) and once again I was beaten. Curses!

The ghosts ride again.

 Curis's absolutely beautiful Chaos warband. Check his blog for more!

 Riders head out to cause early damage.

Both warbands get stuck in. The Objectives turn out to be fairly spread across the board.  My Cairn Wraith does NOTHING.

 Attempt One to kill the pesky wizard.

 

 Attempt Two.

 

The wizard is triumphant and holds the central Treasure Horde until the end of the game.

Spoopy Lads

Decided that my ghosts didn't look "done" after their last few outings so, fuelled by the growing Malign Portent tease, I have done a few touch ups and adjustments.  Basically drybrushed another layer of white, gloss washed them black, added blood stains and spooky red eyes.  Also added a black rim around the base rather than dark brown.

I also realised that I just do not like the more modern Spirit Host figures, all swirly and that, so switched them out for bases of figures painted all ghostly to represent the collected victims of the army.

I picked Free Company figures and a few Orruks to represent the souls reanimated from the ghost's initial foray into the Harrowmark

Spirits of the Harrowmark

Lord Radclyffe's Company

The Middoth, The White Lady & The Wraith

Age of the Emperor

After a few games of 40K I have found the new edition understandable, playable and so much less of a grind than it's previous (7 lets be honest) incarnations.  However it still isn't quite nailed on for me and I find Age of Sigmar a better game.

So, with that in mind, I present the following variant to 40K.  Obviously this is just the start and I might have another think about it after a few games but here you go, just click on it for a bigger version:

Happy Christmas all! Emperor bless us, everyone.

Did me some photos

Inspired by Iron Sleet's excellent guide and helped by those most brilliant of people Curis and Tears of Envy I made myself a light box out of card and sticky back plastic and tried to actually get some shots of my models I don't hate.

The set up (I soon moved the lamp away from the edge)

 My first shot. I brightened the shot and fiddeled around with the Cast setting*

Tech Gangers!

Some ne'er do well Marines.

This morning I was thinking over the photos and now I am actually more inspired to get back painting than I ever have before! A success in my eyes.

 Looks it is like White Dwarf and everything! Many thanks to Curis for the background.

*I have no idea what that means.