quite a productive week...

This period has been quite productive even if I don't have anything finished to show off.

First of all I have primed all my built models, and re-primed to big scenery pieces (was originally primed black, now they are white, although one has sort of a senital spray in some areas). The Scenery pieces are a mountain area with some collumns and a tiled floor with a chaos pattern in it (would think it is primarily for AoS (although I am sure when I bought it it was for Warhammer Fantasy) and a wasteland area with craters, dead trees and a scrapped and battele damaged Rhino for Warhammer 40K.

I have also sorted my minis much better, so that the primed modles now stand in boxes with their kin. I will work on this a little furter when I have my dogs, as I plan to buy more plastic boxes and move the unfinished models from soda-boxes of cardboard to plastic bins with lids as they are much more stackable. I have bought and installed a new shelf this weekend, that gives me room for 9 low boxes or 3 tall and 3 low boxes (so I will see what I ned most to have my armies in). I can also stack the boxes in another location in the hobby room, so the ones that don't fit in the shelf will be stacked there. 

I also re-packaged all my unbuit boxes in to small cardboard boxes, moved a lot of them to my storage unit and stacked the ones I wanted to keep in a tidy manner.

This combined with giving a lot of books to a local flea-market made the room a lot cleaner and I got some floorspace back.

On Saturday I was at my local Warhammer store, and they had the Bretonnian Old World Army box (the one that was released along side the Tomb Kings). It contains a lot of models to build and paint in the future. I think it is 76 models, with a mix of soldiers on foot and on horses and 4 on winged horses)

I have finished building a unit of five Attilan Rough Riders (the horse cavalry) for my Imperial Guard army. I was not too happy about how to attach their right arms as I felt I could not connect them the way it was suggested in the instructions, but apart from that the set was pretty nice. I think it worked out ok in the end though, and I am sure they will look fine once they are primed and painted. I have one more box of them to build, and I am trying to figure out how I want to arm them and if I want to field them as one unit of 10 or two units of 5 (maybe I'll need to get more in the future). I figure if I should have them as one unit then they should all have the same kind of weapon tips on their lances, so I might go for two units of 5 to begin with.

While cleaning up and looking through the boxes I found 4 Ogor Leadbelchers that was partially assembled, so I finished them and put them in a cardboard box together with the Attilan Rough Riders ready for my next priming session.

When that was done I sat down with my Sons of Behemat army and started to add to their skin. All skin was origninally painted with Bugmans Glow, a base paint, and now all the skin got a round with the contrast paint Guilliman Flesh. This gives them sort of a grimy look that I think work well for gargants. 

I discovered a few areas that should be skin that I hadn't painted on a few of them, so I managed to fix that with Bugmans Glow and Guilliman Flesh. I will take a good look on all the gargants one more time to make sure all skin is painted now, before I call it done.

I have also painted most of the pants on my Mancrushers. I have 15 of them, and only have 3 more pants to paint now, and I know what colors I would like to use on them so that will be fixed in the next sitting. The Mega-Gargants mostly wear skin, and there are some skin details on the Mancrushers too so that will be next. 

Rascal Town Knight Goblin arrived...

I was very happy to recive a notification today that my package from Rogue Hobbies containing my Rascal Town Knight Goblin had arived at my local post office (or rather post in store as we don't have a dedicated post office anymore just a storage room and a counter beside the checkout counter at one of the local food stores. So as soon as I could log off from work I went to the store to collect this beauty.

I got home and unpacked the beautiful box with Rascal Town on it, and looked forward to seeing my Knight goblin (the third goblin in the series).

Unfortionately he had been badly wounded during transport, and both his legs and the arm holding the club had broken off, and the club itself had also broken in to a few pieces so the joy got a big kick in the nuts.

But I checked over on the home page of Rascal Town and they say that some damage might happen because the figure is very fragile, but that it is fixable with superglue.

I am not an expert with resin, but the breaks on both the arm and the legs looked very "clean" so I think I can fix it if I use the right amount of superglue and some patience.

I also ordered some scenery (Two barrels and a chest) and they arrived in the same box undamaged.

It is important to say at this stage that I do not blame Rogue Hobbies for the damage, I only blame the companies that has handled the package in transit from UK to my local post delivery. The goblin appeared to be packaged safe enough in his little box, but being a small package I am sure it was damaged while being tossed around with bigger and heavier things that was sent from UK to Norway at the same time.

I have collected all the pieces and will take my time glueing him together and then I will do my best to give him a nice paintjob so that he can stand on display somewhere in my hobby room.

I will try to get the first goblin as well, as I see it is possible to order, but I am unsure if the second one will be available as they have a fishig one caled nr 1, a christmas one called nr 0 and the knight called nr 3. Would love to collect them all.

I will keep you updated on the repair process and the painting. I hope to get to sit down this weekend and start the repairs.

Sons of Behemat update

I felt I managed to put in quite a nice little workout on my giants today.

I managed to put the first layer of skincolor (Bugmans Glow) on 1 Mega-Gargant who is my version of the Beast-smasher, and no less than 5 Mancrushers. This means that all my gargants at least have their skin painted. Several of them have gotten a lot further but they are far from done yet.

I also managed to paint the hair on 3 Mancrushers. 2 of them got the light brown hair (XV 88) and I think it looks nice even though I haven't tried that color for hair before. The last Mancrusher got the yellow hair as I have used tht before and like the color. Originally i was thinking to use some sort of terracotta to make them red haired, but I couldn't find the right color. But there are plenty of gargants to paint yet, so I am sure I will find it so I can use it later.

Spring update...

There has been a little while since my last update, so I have managed to do a litte more building than usual since the last time I updated..

First I built an Ork Boss for 40K called Ufthak Blackhawk. He has a big hammer with spikes, and a big gun mounted on his squig. I think the only one who can use the hammer is an Ork or a Space Marine as it is very big. 

Also for 40K i built an Adepta Sororitas Hospitaller. The hospitaller is the Sisters of Battle equivalent to the Space Marine apothecary. She stands over a wounded (or maybe fallen) Battle Sister laying on the ground one what I believe is a 50 or 60 mm base. I am not sure how I would like to paint the hospitaller, as I think she should be a little different from my regular sisters to show that she is another order. 

Then we go to Age of Sigmar, and the first unit I built was for the Cities of Sigmar range, and was a Freeguild Marshal & Relic Envoy. I basically built them as the models on the box, where the Marshal has a sword and shield. There are also a version you can buld with the sword and shield in the other hands or with a warhammer instead of a sword, and also with two pistols instead of sword and shield. I am thinking I will get one more box in the future and make the version with pistols to fight alongside my fusiliers.

Next up was another Cities of Sigmar model, the Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal. He is basically a General of the Army for the Cities of Sigmar range, and my plan is to spilt my army in two. I will use the old Empire and Bretonnian models as a militia and use the Cities of Sigmar figures as regular army. I might paint them up a little different too, I will see about that when I start painting the new Cities of Sigmar stuff.

When I had a Cavalier-Marshal, it was also natural to build a unit of Cavaliers. So I started to build a unit with five cavliers armed with hand weapons and shields. Before I was done I got the dogs, so I took a little break, but when the dogs were back with my Ex I finished this unit. It was quite clear in the manual that you had lots of choises for parts, but when it came down to it there was a lot that did not fit seemlessly on everyone. One good example were the horses, where you built the legs first and then you built the barding and the rider and joined them together later. But the legs basically only fit on one specific barding, so the variation if you make more units is not as great as you are led to believe.
I think I will get one more box and make a unit of 10. I also have riders in the militia and Bretonnian knights, so I think that might be enough.

One thing that bothered me with the Cavaliers and the Cavalier-Marshal was the banners. When you ride, it is natual that the banner flows backwards as it is flapping in the wind. But on the Marshal the banner goes forward and on the Cavaliers it goes sideways. How is that possible? I'm just asking...

Next I assembled two metal minis that came in an old fashioned blisterpack (only whing missing was the foam). They were supposed to be released in the Bretonnian range back in Warhammer Fantasy, but for some reason they were never released. But for The Old World they have been released as they were originally intended in metal on slotted bases. The blister is called Lord with great weapon, and it is a Bretonnian Lord with long flowing hair leaning on his longsword (or maybe it is a broadsword) and a squire carrying his helmet. The mort work with them was cutting away the metal treads left from the casting, then it was only a matter of glueing the sword arm to the Lord and the models were done.

Next I went back to the Cities of Sigmar army and built a Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk. This is one of the weirder models for the range as it is a totally new ogor model that looks nothing like the ogor range, except maybe his height. He is not as bulky and muscular, but looks more like a really big human. He has a rig around his waist with a big pole sticing out from it, and on the top of the pole there is a lookout platform where the Fusil-Major stands and gets a good view of the battlefield. From there he shouts orders to the lines of fusiliers on the battlefield. I have a few boxes of those so that is a build for the near future. I think I will get one more Fusil-Major so I can have one on each side of the battlefield.

I then wanted to build something completely different, so I built the Rogal Dorn Battle Tank for my Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) army. I did a mistake (not sure what really happened, except I built it like I have done with all my other tracked vehicles) with one of the side sponsons so the first belt did not fit as snuggly as it is supposed to do, but I think once I paint it up it will not be very visible. It is just a track at the back that looks a little crooked. The second side sponson I assembled exacly like the instructions said and then it worked as it should. So guess it is some issue with the belts and sponsons needing to be supported from all ides during the build to be steady or something like that. Now I know that for the future. Apart form that it was a very nice build and I don't mind that there is a big part under the middle of the tank that is open. It gives me an excuse not to paint too much underneath...

After the tank was done I wanted to do one more build, so I found a box of Ogor Leadbelchers and built them. But instead of building four of them with the big cannons as the box lets you, I made one of them with a sword and a banner. I don't remember what set the banner is from originally, but I modified it with adding a big skull a long time ago and it has been laying on my desk since. So I made one of them a banner bearer, and I think this unit might be a sort of command unit rallying lots of other Leadbelcherst to their side when the Ogor Mawtribes (as they are called now) march to battle. 

I have quite a lot of Ogors in various stades of painting, some are almost complete while others are primed white or in various stages of painting. 

I see now that the square bases are back in stock, that is one reason I stopped making Ogors as the new models had round bases, but I have checked now and the old ones are on 40x40 mm bases so I can increase the army further by buying boxes for Age of Sigmar and just buy packs of square bases to glue them on. It is not that I need to have a square base army, but when most of them are mounted on thst I think it looks better to have all of them on that. I don't think it will be a big issue as I don't think I will play with them that much, but they will be a display army. Maybe I can bring them to a future Armies on Parade? Time will show... All my Existing ogors are on square bases except the pirte one who seems to be on a round 50mm tht is sculpted. I will see what I do if I move him to a square base and give it some extra love, or if I keep him on the round. His small followers (two squats, a bird and a monkey are also on round bases, but they should be easy to move if I decide to do so).

Another plan I have (maybe I will do something about it tomorrow after work) is to get some more paint on my Sons of Behemat army. I think I have 5 regular gargants and one Mega-gargant that only are primed, so I would like to start and paint some skin on them so I can batch paint my gargants and try to get them finished.

And now for something completely different...

I just watched Louise Sugden (I hope I wrote her name right) promote and paint her new Goblin. She has a Youtube channel called Rogue Hobbies, and her love for Goblins are even bigger than mine. So much so that she has started to make her own in a larger scale. This is her third figure in the series, and I already regret that I never ordered the first two (they are no longer available).

I discovered "Sugs" back in the days when she was part of the Games Workshop team, but like Duncan Rhodes and Chris Peach ("Peachy") she has since left Games Workshop and started her own channel. 

She has sort of a fresh look on minis and colors (she has some very cool swords on her Rainbow Warrior Space Marines) and I really like to watch her videos and hear her chat as she paints. 

I will never be able to paint half as good as her, but I will do my best to do this Goblin justice, and hopefully I will manage to paint it up in a nice way. 

If you like to watch her video, and maybe order something from her webshop, you can find the video HERE. The channel releases new Goblins from time to time and also have hoodies and tshirts (unfortionately they are not in my size, at least not yet) so I can't get those. But for now I got myself a goblin with some scenery, and I look forward to getting my package and start on this little Goblin adventure. And supporting Roughe Hobbies at the same time. 

I will show off the mini here once it arrives, and also show the progress once I start  to paint it. 

Warhammer 40K or really Neromunda this time

Since the last update I have built some Adeptus Arbites units for Necromunda, and maybe I can find a way to field them in 40K too. I am sort of blending the background for Necromunda and 40K as everything sort of happens in the same planetary system.

I have built two full units that are now ready for priming when the weather wil let me do that.

One unit is a Palanite Subjugator patrol with six figures armed with shields and five of them have guns while the last one has a weapon to blow open locked gates. I have another box of Subjugators to build, and I plan to build them with shields and clubs.

The other unit I have built is a Palanite Enforcer Patrol with 10 figures. 

I would love to have some transports to these units, but the special tansports the Arbites uses are no longer available to buy from Games Workshop, and they are quite special. The lore states that they use other vehicles that are still in the range, so I guess I will have to go with Rhinos or Chimeras for them.

I would like to have at least one more Enforcer unit, and there are a few other sets I would like to add. One of them is the new Palanite Enforcer Tauros Venator. That is a car with one driver and one gunner, and it is based on the car that the Elysian Drop troops had before the entire range was removed. The Venators are officially used to patrol the Ash Wastes.

Also I would love to have some Cyber Mastiffs for this army, as I feel that would work well with the Adptus Arbites look, but the only unit I have found that is on sale is a resin set with a psycher called Scrutinator-Primus Servalen. I will probably get that if it comes back in stock, but I don't feel I can have more than one of that unit and I would love more dogs than that.

The last unit I am thinking about is something called Enforcer "Sanctioner" Pattern Automatas. This is two "robots" with heavier weapons than the human Arbites. I am nor sure just how big they are, but from looking at them I think they might be about the size of the walkers the Imperial Guard use, maybe a little smaller.  I would like to have two of these units, so that I get four models in total.

Been building more Cities of Sigmar

Since the last update I have finished building the final 3 models of the Freeguild Command Corps, so it is now 6 figures (5 persons and a Gryph hound or something like that).

I have also built Pontifex Zenestra - Matriarch of the Great Wheel. This is a slightly bigger moel mounted on a cavalry base. I have not glued it on to the base though, as I think it will be easier if I prime it and do some painting on the underside of the model before I glue it down. This model consist of two men carrying a throne between them with the Pontifex sitting facing forward and a skeleton facing backwards. 

The last thing I have built since the last update is my first unit of Freeguild Steelhelms. This is 10 figures.

I wanted to take some time to talk about the new Cities of Sigmar range, as the unit of Steelhelms are the first real unit I have built with the new figures. 

It strikes me that the old Empire models were easier to modify compared to the new ones. On the old models you had legs that you glued to the torso at the hips, these new models have a leg and the back in one piece, and grooves made to fit the front of the torso down in the groin area. I must admit I have not tried to modify too much on this first box, but I would like to do so in the future to make the units look different and I am a little worried that this will be a lot harder when you need to find a front piece that both fit the sides as well as the protection covering the groin. But hopefully this will be easier than I expect. Guess I will find that out some weeks from now, as I need to order another Steelhelm unit before I can try this. 

Next unit up will be a unit called Freeguild Fusiliers, and then the Freeguild Marshal and Relic Envoy.

The Fusiliers are the gunners of the Infantry, and they have "hand cannons" and big shields. 

Also I have noticed that in the new edition of the codex the units are 10 man strong, not 20 like it could be on the old rules. It seems like the unit size now is what you get in a box.

I have just gotten the codex, so I will try to read up on it and do some unit planning this weekend as I have my dogs this week so there will not be much building this weekend.