40k minis and scenery - picture testing.

Just a few mobile pics to show models in situ as it were. Some Ultramarines, Space Wolves and Inquisitor Lorr stuck in there for good measure. Oh and the Rhino with the Forge World doors too. These are from my mobile phone, as I took them when I was storing all the scenery I have. Some of the GW buildings look quite good - so next time they are out and about I think I'll redo these so you can see them all more clearly!

Sarge. Mighty-Whitey-Face.

"Quick, everyone look in different directions..."

Stand and deliver!

Nice parking...

Annual Dramatic Pointing Contest (Gold, Silver and Bronze).

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Posted in: 40k,Space Wolves,tanks,Ultramarines,Witch Hunters

40K 6th Ed. I got mine. Have you got yours? First impressions.

Well, because I'm sort of in the business, I got mine a whole day early. Ooooh, get her! Yes, I know nothing to boast about. So what can I say? Well seeing as how everyone else is saying something...here goes. First impressions -

First of all I have to confess my gaming 'status'. That's to say I'm basically a hobbyist. If you've seen my posts, they're not about the game, or the strategies, or the army selection. The models. So far that is...

I thought that with this edition I'd try to get a better handle on the game than the rudimentary basics I'd picked up from owning previous editions. Editions which I had read for fluff and painting source material only basically.

So here I am with 6th Edition and it's time to plunge in a bit more properly. This post is for you if you too have been dabbling...

The art work is fantastic, full colour and detailed. There are some great pull out panels which are atmospheric and add to the feel of a book (some say tome at over 450 pages) with a strong sense of artistic coherency. There's decay, corruption, death, destruction and chaos seeping in at the edge of each and every page.

There are a fair number of different sections too. The rules at first, followed by hobby advice, background histories, pas battles, photo galleries, game expansion ideas, mission types and a number of appendices with summaries of the most important information. So there really is a whole lot here. For £45 (or less, if you search the net), I think it's good value for money, though I'm not a teenager with limited funds.

Nice.

 Next:The rules.  I've always considered 40k to be a complicated game. There are a vast number of rules since you need a codex for your army too, to be fully rules equipped. And there's still a lot to plough through. In a way, I'm glad that I never knew the previous rules very well - since I don't have to do any re-learning. The first 30 pages or so are the basics then the rest gets added. The new Psychic Powers, for instance, come much later.
Those first 30 pages are quite manageable. There's a lot to remember but the new pre-measuring rule will help players like me and I think the feel of the basics has an appropriate battle 'flow'. For example, I'm happy enough that the close combatants have to work in initiative order. I think I get 'Pile In' and Morale checks and I'm reasonably juggling the AP knowledge for each weapon (if I have the stats close by!)

The Special rules and vehicles and terrain and character models are next. I guess I'll let you know how that goes. I'm hoping that a few blogs/vlogs will turn up (as on Beastsofwar perhaps), that will guide novices like me.



Look, lots of sharp stuff to kill stuff with.

Things I think I like so far-

Allies -why not? As a hobbyist I've got Space Wolves and Ultramaries and Dark Angels and IG all sitting around in various places. I don't think it will cause me to spend more money, as many have argued. I might just spread it out in different directions. Good! I can get that cool model from a different army.

Pre-measuring - who wants to argue how far one thing is from another thing? Who wants to try and work out if someone is sneakily trying to pre-measure anyway.

Snap-shots and overwatch - seems sensible to me.  Shooting in battles is incessant. Make it so on the table.

Explosive barrels - of course they are.

One thing I wish was in the new book -

A quick start guide. Noobs like me need to get going and have a reference guide that will help. There is a summary but it's six pages long. I think GW have missed a trick here. Other quick start guides I have seen are miles shorter (Warmahordes anyone?) There may well be one. Wait n see.

So there you go. I'm not sure I'm sold on random Psychic Powers and I know that Warlord Challenges will take ages to get my head around to any effective extent. But you know what, it's injected enthusiasm in all of the right places. Here goes...

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Posted in: 40k,books

More Mercenaries. Magnus The Traitor - step one.

Here is step one ! A reasonable sculpt quite dramatic and part of the Mercenaries Battlegroup set offered by Privateer Press. Here be Magnus the Traitor.



So what have we we got here then?

Back of cloak and shoulders - Traitor Green (P3 paint) with Devlan Mud wash (GW).

Inner cloak - Battle Dress green (P3 paint) with Devlan Mud wash (GW).

Trousers - Hammerfall Kaki (P3) with Gryphonne Sepia (GW wash).

Boots  - Bootstrap Leather (P3) with Devlan Mud wash (GW).

Metal - Chainmail with Badab Black wash (both GW).

Gold - will be Shining Gold with Gryphonne Sepia/Devlan Mud wash (GW).

Next will be building up some lighrter highlights and getting the gold to match the Mangler (see previous posts). But when who knows? And I have to pin the arms and slap on the backpack. Oh and did I mention that Dannon Blythe and Bull arrived? And The Black 13th? So much to do, so little time....again.

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Posted in: Warmachine

The Farseer Trilogy or 'There and not back again.'

I picked this trilogy up on browsing through Amazon's review lists. I'm trying a few 'epic'(?) fantasy series, not generally my normal fare but Game of Thrones brought me in. Normally I like the posh stuff, classics n' that but general recommendations were positive and Robin Hobb was on a number of readers' 'best' lists. This trilogy was up there or there about on many lists too.They're books I thought and I like books. I'll give them a go.



Nice metallicy covers.



Inititally, it took me couple of efforts to get past the first five pages. Not sure why. Perhaps having just finished reading George RR Martin's 'progress' in The Game of Thrones series, I guess I wanted something with the visceral immediacy of Westeros and its brutality and its sex. That's all here. But the pace is more measured, it's relatively less complex certainly and all is from a single point of view - Fitz the royal bastard - and not multiple perspectives. Having been bound to the story of the child Fitz like some sort of Wit-beast I soon grew into the story. Some of the phrasing flummoxed me somewhat - maybe they are Americanised sentence structures - but generally the narrative is fluent, engagingly descriptive and the world of the Six Duchies and The Mountain Kingdoms is soundly realised.
The narrative is also helped by the 'magical' element, if you can call it that. It's not sorcery and spells per se, the power is called the Skill and is a sort of mind control/telepathy/seeing from afar type thing. This helps bring in other parts of the story that are running narratively in sequence with the man action without the need for other perspectives or drifting from the location of the current point of the narrative. Also, to a lesser extent, this is true of The Wit - an animal bonding power, apparently much frowned upon in the Six Duchies However, apart from the bonds Fitz creates with particular animals there are elements of The Wit which are largely left to the side - oddly even when other characters with the same ability cross his path. Missed opportunity?
Maybe not. He's a bit of a loner see? Fitz. Not always a nice guy. Selfish. Humanly faulty. Sometimes I thought he was right, sometimes what happens isn't 'fair' and sometimes the arrogance of his youth is stunning. He does develop. As does the wolf. As does the charming (eventually) King's Fool. The assassin master Chade and the other characters too. No spoilers you can read the story yourself...I like the fact Fitz is not the all powerful magic man who comes through in the end. Though he sort of does. Well he would wouldn't he? He's just a  catalyst - so everyone keeps tellng him.
I don't feel that there is much difference in quality or pace in the three instalments - a criticism sometimes flung at Martin. The criticism seems to be that the ending is a bit short. I can see that but didn't mind that at all. It said what it had to. Did what it had to. I feel the point of the ending was made efficiently. I think people wanted more battle and more magic at the end. Not sure it would have made any difference.
Just one final point. I really enjoyed reading it. That's the point. And as soon as I put it down my son (14) picked it up and charged through it too. There are a few dodgy moments but as I said it's not Game of Thrones -and the language while advanced is accessible. He loves the idea of the Wit and has renamed our pets after the names of the 'witted' animals in the text. He thought Nighteyes wa s especially 'cool' - We are pack he said. I'm not even sure his lips moved.
Give it a go.

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Posted in: books

The end of The Mangler - PP Mercenary madness!

And here you go. The just finished Mercenary Mangler, painted and ready to go. In actual fact I think I found it easier than many 40K minis that I've painted, though it's not very 'mini'. It's a decent size. Not too complicated to put together, nice and sturdy. Enough detail but not too much! I did lose patience with some of the highlighting, so some of it was a bit rushed and a little rough round the edges. I also didn't clean the flash off very well, this was my first PP model and I missed some of it in my enthusiasm to get going... I also struggled a little getting a balance between using Devlan Mud wash and keeping a cleaner feel to the paint job. In the end I washed then overbrushed. I used both P3 and GW paints. Basically  - P3 = Battledress Green, Gun Corps Brown. GW = the metal colours.
See what you think, let me know.

In the light!



Oops, forgot to show the back!



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Posted in: Warmachine

Cygnar Ironclad - progress report.

Here is the Ironclad from the plastic Cygnar Battlegroup set and because most of my 40K output has been Ultramarine based, I wanted to avoid even more blue. So I used the guide from No Quarter #32 to get a desert themed version up and running. It's a bit rough and ready as I don't quite have all the necessary colours. P3 Rucksack Tan with Battlefield Brown shading. P3 Cygnar blues and GW metals. Shoulder armour = Gun Corps Brown. P3 Arcane Blue glow effect (though I need to tidy these up).
There is also a bit of Devlan Mud mixed with Brown Ink in the shading. Then there are a few coats of Gryphonne Sepia over the gold (Burnished Gold - GW) and for the metal used Chainmail (GW) rather than Bolter (GW) to give a different feel from the metals on the Mangler.

And having named all of the colours used - yep, all the GW names will be different soon enough. Hey.

 Lastly the picture -

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Posted in: Warmachine

'The Walking Dead.' - Volumes 1-15.

I've blogged on a number of occasions about the graphic novels that I've been accruing and reading.  You can look back at my posts on 'Preacher', 'BPRD', 'Fables' and 'Hellboy'. Today it's the turn of the Kirkman/Adlard/Rathburn production of the extensive and long running zombie series 'The Walking Dead'. Now a major TV series too - series 2!
First off let me say zombies aren't my usual fare. Not that anything in particular is, but the horror genre doesn't usually do anything for me. The film 'I am Legend' was engaging, tense and dramatic in equal turns and the undead are are a staple of many a console based game I've played. However, I was introduced to this by a friend and once I'd read volume one, I was well and truly hooked.

The series covers a scenario in which the world is brought to its knees by 'walkers' who roam the country biting and thus infecting everyone they come into contact with. Rick Grimes, a local cop, wakes up from a coma ( 'Day of the Triffids' anyone?) to find the world already changed beyond all recognition. His wife (Lori) and his boy (Carl) are missing - and he therefore has only one thing in mind - to find them.

I've said the story is extensive, it's more of a chronicle really, a kind of road trip through the world (the US) laid waste by the zombies. It explores the new realities of life and the moral and philosophical readjustments that Rick et al have to go through. Rick's not always an easily likable character, nor are many that he encounters and journeys with on the way.

I think the artwork conveys this superbly - especially in Volume One - with Tony Moore on board, though he doesn't continue after this one. The art is black and white throughout and this lends quite an eerie tone to proceedings, as if it required any help on this front...The landscapes are barren, dilapidated, solemn spaces with drifting ghoulish figures. Towns and cities are wastelands inhabited by gangs, lonely lost souls and those desperate to cling stubbornly to life. All with personal demons and excruciating histories. Often scenes are brutal, graphic and starkly imagined. Be warned.
I bet that sounds depressing. Well, I guess to a certain extent that is what it is. I don't think the premise means that you can have much 'jollyness'. But that's not the point. There is, for the reader, the grim satisfaction in the human spirit's desire to protect loved ones and to win survival for them at whatever cost.The characters are well written and we recognise the changes they go through and we sympathise with some of the awful choices they make. As a reader you lurch from panel to panel as they lurch from disaster to hope, from despair to finding solace in each other's company. It's a bumpy ride.
There is a great deal of dialogue too. Sometimes it tends to go over some of the same 'I can't cope' / 'What have I become?' / 'I'd do anything to protect my family' - type ground. This maybe because I read the volumes in batches of three or four at a time and consequently I covered a lot of the story at once. These build the characters though -which is the point. There is progression, there are consequences, characters do carry grudges, form relationships and struggle together.
A recommended read. Four out of five at least for me.

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Posted in: graphic novels