Sharing a quick video from MetaballStudios highlighting the tallest buildings on the planet.
The end includes some conceptual buildings that are definately hive-adjacent.
Give us a couple more centuries and we might have our very own Necromunda.
The massive buildings start at the 3 min mark.
Ok, the title might have been a little click-baitie (am I saying that right)?
We all spend more than we intend on this hobby and we all have more minis than we need (?!). Here are a few guidelines the help avoid Kickstarter from being an unnecessary drain on your hobby dollars.
First, I’m approaching this as a converter, painter, player, but most of all an army builder. If you’re a hardcore tournament player or painting pieces for competition your list might be a little different.
Second, the lure of Kickstarter (or other crowd funding platforms) is undeniable – the anticipation of opening the campaign page and potentially seeing something completely mind-blowing, the excitement of seeing if it will fund (or how high it will go), seeing the stretch goals get knocked down one by one, the pennies per miniature, all make it easy to back one Kickstarter too many!
So, to keep your Kickstarter habit in check, here are a few things to keep top of mind when deciding whether to back or not:
1. Set an overall hobby budget
Back in 2018 my approach to Kickstarter gradually became “if I like it, I’ll back it” and by 2019 I realized I was spending way too much and I needed to be more selective
I set a budget of $200/month for all hobby related purchases (on average, some months will be higher, some lower)
This not only helps set a cap on overall spending, but also helps you priorite your wish list - backing a Kickstarter might mean postponing another purchase
Next are 5 questions I always ask myself:
2. Do I have an immediate use for this?
While ‘immediate’ is a relatively term for Kickstarter, this question has become the biggest driver of whether I will back a project or not
Is this for a game I currently play (I have a lot of Warmachine stuff, and I’ve played exactly 2 games to date)
If I play the game, do I have an army this can immediately slot into?
If not, will this be for my next army (not a ‘some day’ army)
Will I paint this in the next year (of course holding yourself to account is another mater)
It was heartbreaking, but I passed on CMONs Rising Sun Kickstarter
The miniatures are outstanding (and the game is pretty fun too) but I just couldn’t see using them anytime soon
Like most of us, my closet of shame is more of a storage locker and much of it comes from buying things I like but don’t have an immediate need for (or are part of a pie-in-sky army concept that will never see the light of day)
And what’s worse, I have boxes of things that have been since replaced by newer and cooler models, that will never get used
If its not something you will use right now, don’t back it – chances are it will only collect dust on a shelf
3. Does this bring something new to my table?
It might be cool and it might be for your army, but does it fill a need?
I definitely have a ‘type’ when it comes to Kickstarters – gothic/ecclesiastical heroes all day – but at some point, I simply will never need another Inquisitor mini
Similarly, I’ve all but sworn of terrain Kickstarters because I just have too many kits already
Compare the compounding benefit of adding a new element to your table or army vs adding something you already have (or worse, adding it but never using it in favor of existing pieces)
4. Is the Kickstarter good value?
Normally, I find Kickstarters to be very good value, especially when compared to the baseline of Games Workshop pricing, but its not a universal truth (I recently passed on a 10 figure Nurgle inspired warband that cost 60 euros + shipping which I felt was overpriced)
Look at what you will actually get (or better, what you will actually use) and what is the cost of that (including shipping)
Don’t been distracted by claims of discounts on MSRPs or a long list of stretch goals or value-add extras like art cards, booklets, packaging, that drive up price but that you’ll ultimately throw away
Buy only what you want - resist the temptation to purchase ‘one level up’ just because ‘it’s a good deal’
Remember its not about the number of figs you get, it’s the number of figs you will use
5. Can I wait and buy it later?
If its something you might see using down the road, or for budgetary reasons you want to hold off on, you may want to wait and purchase later through normal retail channels
This can be risky however, as many Kickstarters are ‘one and done’ and never see a storefront
I prefer deciding to back or not, then either putting my money down or letting it go
6. Is this just a ‘must have’?
Ok, the one thing that can override all of the above is the ‘wow factor’
There are just some pieces that are so unique, so outstanding, so cool, that you would kick yourself if you didn’t get it
DeepWars: Hunters of the Abyss was a great example. The sub desgin was outstanding and the fact that there are so few underwater vehciles made it something of a rairity. I don’t have a plan for it - maybe I’ll rework it into an ork freebooter vehicle (but who knows)
Machination Studio’s Codename Colossus was another. The walking mech was such as statement piece I grabbed it - maybe it will be a Grot Titan, maybe a Knight for my Death Krieg (still undecided)
Other considerations:
7. Look at the pledge structure
Do the pledge levels match the pieces you want
e.g. They have a 5 mini pledge and a 10 mini pledge, but you only want 7
The tendancy is to pledge at the higher level, but usally what happens, is I picked my 5 minis, added 2 others I probably could have passed on, then struggled to find 3 others I would want
Consider pledging $1 dollar to get access to the pledge manager and then buy individual pieces
Make sure they are available seperately and that this doesn’t exclude you from stretch goals if you want them (confirm with project owners if unclear)
8. Take your time and really look the minis
Don’t be impulsive - usually Kickstarters run for a month – take that time
Ok, you may miss out on the early bird deals, but frankly I’ve doing this for years and usually by the time I find the Kickstarter those are already gone anyway
Revisit and really examine the miniatures
This extra time gives you the space to think about the 5 questions mentioned above
It also gives you time to examine the entire miniature not just first impressions
There have been a number of Kickstarters I thought were slam dunks, but the more I looked at the minis the more I found things I didn’t like
For example, the Heresy Lab’s Citizens of the Old World - at first glance I loved these two figs, but it was only later when I noticed the children poking out from Spooky’s robes and the fact that Melchior had two peg legs, that I ultimately passed
(and to be clear, I like Heresy Lab and have backed a number of their Kickstarters)
9. Be wary of the big box game
I’ve been guilty of being seduced by an attractive board game that offers hundreds of minis at an unbelievable price (and if you are a board gamer and you are buying it for the game, that’s obviously different)
While many board games do have excellent miniatures, ask your self how many of them you will really use - many games have a few large pieces that grab you, but the rank and file end up being more generic sculpts
What are the stand-out miniatures that draw you to the Kickstater and compare that against all the rest of the minis (and keep in mind there are often a lot of duplicate miniatures)
Would you pay the same amount for just those minis?
The minis are also likely made of the soft ‘Bones’ style plastic and will have bendy bits and be lower detail that their hard plastic equivalents
I backed The Edge Dawnfall and Hate and I have mixed feelings about both
The Edge had several outstanding minis I really wanted, but most ended up being not that useful
Hate had solid minis across the board, but give their similarities I’ll probably only use a fraction of them
But, I then went on to back Horizon Zero Dawn and Solomon Kane afterwards - we’ll see if I’m pleasantly surprised or if I’ve finally learned my lesson
10. Will they successfully complete the Kickstarter?
Nothing is guarantied and when working with new companies there is always a risk. Kickstarter is not a store where you’re guaranteed to walk out with your item
Do your research – do they have previous campaigns, do they have a cast or just 3d models (or just concept art), how ambitious are they being
That said (and this is just my personal experience) companies will vary rarely forfeit - I’ve seen stories of companies getting into trouble (usually due to inexperience or unexpected disaster) and taking a financial loss to complete their Kickstarters vs forfeiting. Even with the more public blow ups (like with Dust or Maxmini’s Green Tide) they eventually delivered
But expect delays – usually ~ 1 year
There have been some smaller Kickstarters I’ve back that have delivered on time, but most delivered a year later than their target (some 2 years)
Factor that in to your “immediate need”
I hope this list has been helpful in providing a useful framework for evaluating whether or not to back a Kickstarter project.
To keep on top of the latest Kickstarters visit:
Tabletop Fix - Probably the best source for new releases and a wide range of Kickstarters
Bell of Lost Souls - their Outside the Box feature, every Friday, covers new releases and the weeks latest miniature related Kickstarters
Tabletop Gaming News - also includes some Kickstarter news from the mini and board gaming world
Have I missed any? Leave your best sources in the comments.
Welcome back - we will end our time in the 30K universe today, finishing our look at the Horus Heresy skin of GW’s Triumph and Treachery supplement.
Last post included a look at the original supplement and what changes were needed to make a 30K version, as well as looking at what components needed to be changed. This post will deal with the design of the pieces and their production.
DESIGN
The first decision was to determine the visual look of the skin. This was fairly straightforward, given I wanted to emulate the look and feel of the 30K Redbooks.
The two major styles used in the books are 1) the red pages with various seals used for the covers and interstitial pages and 2) the aged paper pages with red border and sepia images used for the content.
I opted to use red border and sepia backgrounds for the front of the cards and the red page and seal for the back. I spent some time looking through the Redbooks and eventually found suitable images from Book 3 - Extermination.
I used this format for both the treachery cards and the turn order cards. The font was chosen to match the Redbook font and the turn order images were taken from the various Blackbooks.
I then realized I would need a place to store all these cards, so for bonus points, I designed two tuck boxes, one for the event cards and one for the turn order cards.
I then moved on to the tokens. As mentioned last post, I opted to use the idea of glory and honor as the ‘currency’ to spend. The original game had 3 denominations, 20, 50, 100, but I simplified it to 50 and 200. This would make design and production a little easier and frankly, worked just a well for game play purposes.
Given there are quite a few number pieces of lore that one could use to represent glory and honor, such as purity seals, countless honor or campaign badges, custom livery, personal banners, company banners, etc, the decision of what to use was largely driven by available components.
I found a diamond shaped token for the 50 point denomination to represent an honor badge - the kind Marines weld onto their should pad with a name or motto carved into it.
The second, 200 point token, was a simple rectangle to represent a company banner (the kind that might be hung in one of the massive halls either onboard great chapter battle barges or fortresses. I opted to include both a loyalist version and a traitor version. I took a ton of inspiration from various banners I saw online, particularly from Titan banners. I also leveraged some of the Space Marine, Imperial and Inquisitor decal sheets from GW.
The color choices, again, reflected the color palette of the Redbooks. The Latin in the loyalist banner roughly translates to “For the Emperor” and “Eternal Brotherhood”. And for the traitor banner, it says, “Let the Galaxy Burn” and “For the Warmaster”. I had an absolute blast designing these two pieces!
The last element was the name. I wanted to keep the same naming structure as the original: two opposing words describing the outcome using illation - Triumph and Treachery became Brotherhood and Betrayal.
PRODUCTION
Before beginning any of the design work, I did give a little thought to what putting this into production would look like. At first, I thought of a do-it-yourself approach and while I have access to enough equipment that could make a credible set of cards and tokens, they would, sadly, still fall short of a professional set of cards and game pieces.
Fortunately, I came across a number of sites that make off-the-self blank components for board games but will also take custom artwork and print finished components (mostly for prototyping new board games).
After a little due diligence, I found a little family run business out of Washington that was reputable and affordable. After reviewing their component selection, and choosing things like card size, component types and finishes, I downloaded their templates and got designing!
The total output was:
36 treachery cards
This matched the number in the original supplement
(and happened to be the max number of cards you could fit into a tuck box)
36 turn order cards
I needed at 18 cards for each of the original legions
(plus a few more for variant lists e.g. Black Shields)
I needed another 8 or so for the non-Marine factions
I used the rest for deamons (which can now be used for Deamons of the Ruinstorm) and, even though not currently playable factions, a card for the major xenos races (just in case)
2 tuck boxes (previously shown)
40 honorifica tokens and 24 banners (12 loyalist, 12 traitor)
This would be enough pieces to account for ~5000pt worth of units destroyed
The total cost of production was ~US$50 - money well spent!
Finally, here are the actual cards and tokens.
My gaming group uses these every time we play 30K and having professionally printed cards, with rules and flavour text that fits into the 30K univsere, really elevates the experience.
Thanks for looking!
Welcome back.
We are not leaving the 30K universe just yet, but are switching focus away from the Death Guard.
Most of the (few) Heresy games I get to play are with 2 other players. While we occasionally adjust points values to even up the sides (e.g. one 2000pt army vs two 1000pt armies) more often than not we play a free for all, everyone against everyone. This has proven to be a less than streamlined experience as the rules are really written for one on one play.
When we came across the Triumph and Treachery rules, specifically written for multi-player games, it piqued our interest. The rules are definitely more ‘beer and pretzels’ than tournament style and mostly introduce random elements and more opportunities to surprise you and your opponents.
The rules are fairly straightforward:
The only real multi-player rule is that, in any given phase, you can only interact with one opponent
This takes a little getting use to but forces you to assess the biggest threat each phase (and eliminates a lot of the rules issues around multiple people trying to interact at the same time, and frankly, just streamlines the game play)
Next, it introduces a random turn order
On the edges, this means you may get 2 turns back to back or have everyone else go twice before you
But it does create some fun tension as you tentatively turn the card to see who goes next - will it be you and you can pull off your brilliant strategy or will it be your opponent who might disrupt everything
Victory tokens are introduced as a replacement for victory conditions.
For every unit destroyed, the victor receives tokens to represent the point value of said unit
Each player also has a hand of cards that either grant them a benefit or causing an impediment to their opponents
Some cards can be played at anytime, in any phase, on any players turn, others have more proscribed uses. While most cards can be played for free, some require spending precious victory tokens
Again, they just add a level of interest and fun. Usually they have a minimal impact on the outcome and add a bit of color/fluff to the proceedings. But every once and a while they can play a pivotal role - like when I was preparing to wipe out a unit of deep striking Terminators that appeared in my back ranks then my opponent played a card that prevented me from targeting him.
Finally, the mercenary rules allow you to field units from another army (up to 20% of your force). But those units can turn on you if they are routed or may sit a round out if enough cash (aka victory tokens) change hands
Obviously, you could just take an allied contingent, but the mercenary rules are more flexible, allowing you to take any model from any army so long as there is one character model
You can also convert points into victory tokens if you want to play at a point disadvantage.
Now, as you'll note from the pictures, there was one complication - this supplement was designed for the old WHFB.
Fortunately, most of the rules were easily transferable (e.g. a +1 WS works in both systems just fine) and where the rules don't apply (e.g. magic) there was a 30K comparable (e.g. pyskics). So most of the changes were cosmetic.
I updated all the turn order cards to reflect Horus Heresy forces.
I updated all treachery card imgary to match the red book visual style and updated the flavor text.
Lastly I replaced the money tokens, something Space Marines would care little for, with something they would - glory and honor! Thought this worked well as it would be something Maries would strive to earn, commanders might actually use to motivate or sway troups and would work for both loyalist and traitor forces.
In addition, we also added a few House rules
Though the intent is to use the tokens in place of the scenario victory conditions, we often use both victory tokens and victory points (at a conversion of 200 tokens for 1 victory point)
For the Mercenary’s rule, we allow players to take units from their own army and allowed reserve deployment (where is doesn’t conflict with any unit/legion rules). The idea actually plays very well in Horus Heresy, where every legion:
had Marines that secretly sided with enemy, lurking in their ranks
included loyal (or traitor) Marines from other, oppositely declared, legions
had Marines who were conflict over who the enemy was
had Marines mortified to find themselves fighting against their former brothers
Next up we’ll look at some of the component designs and producing the final pieces.
Welcome to the final update on the 30K Death Guard Horus Heresy army. I hope you’ve enjoyed this somewhat abbreviated journey.
My final Forgeworld order had arrived adding a Spartan (along with the Death Guard legion doors) for a bit of punching power and transport capability.
In terms of assembly, there were the usual challenges when working with a large resin kit. There was a fair bit of hot water dipping to straighten various pieces. The tracks required a good deal of sanding and I’ll need to go back with some gap filler once the man cave is up and running. But, all in all, the kit went together fairly well.
I, of course, added a few magnets for the weapon sponsons and in the copula. While that would allow me to swamp weapons, given the limited options on the Spartan, it was more just to make transport easier.
I also added another 5 Grave Wardens Terminators - warriors from Typhon’s own company, specially equipped Cataphractii suits armed with horrific alchemical weaponry. I can now have 10 Grave Warden lead by Typhon all in a Spartan for a serious Death Star (is that still a thing?), of course at whooping 1,000pts.
And finally, here is the completed Death Guard army.
Well, that’s it for the army so far. Its a pretty solid mix of units and allows for a few different options on tabletop, from ‘sit back and shoot’ with missile launchers and artillery to a very assaulty force with Meltaguns, Terminators and the Spartan. The Leviathan can be used in either option, with either a ranged or assault load-out.
No plans to expand the army at this point though I would eventually like to get a Rhino for the Tactical Support squad, a Moritat with a jump Assault Squad and, of course, the big man, Mortarion, himself.
I hope this has been an interesting look into one of GWs non-Core games. Again, I’d highly recommend checking out Horus Heresy if you have any interest in the Space Marines. The wealth of legion specific units, models and rules grant a richer more thematic experience and new level of Space Marine play. And in combination with the accompanying lore, it builds up the 40K back story in more hand-ons manner, beyond simply reading the stories (as good as they are).
Next up is a look at the Triumph and Treachery reskin.
Continuing on with our look at 30K Death Guard. Just a short post this time.
I had received the second Forgeworld order by this point. Did a big push here and completed the Tactical Squad, added a Heavy Support squad with Missile Launchers. I also built my leader, Calas Typhon, First Captain, first to fall to Chaos, soon to become Typhus the Traveler, Host of the Destroyer Hive and Master of the Terminus Est.
I opted to build Typhon stock, using the bare head (the only one I plan to have in the army)
Having most of the HQ and troops completed by now, wanted to add a few things that would pack a little more of a punch. First, was the Leviathan dreadnaught. This is a stellar model, truly a massive presence on the battlefield.
As I’ve done with previous projects I magnetized the arms to allow for different weapon configurations
(in fact, all the weapon options)
As a bonus, here are a few images from a recent game vs the Night Lords and Space Wolves. Despite a strong start, Leman Russ, the Primarch himself, deigned to descend and wipe the board with me. Its a bit of a sea of grey, but plan to make these guys my first airbrush project.
Next post will see the Death Guard in all their glory
Welcome back! We’ll be continuing our look at the 30K Death Guard army.
In Horus Heresy, your HQ choices mostly consist of a Praetor (aka Chapter Master, Lord Commander) and Centurions (aka Detachment commanders, Lt Commanders). What makes things interesting, is that Centurions can be upgraded to Consuls, warriors with specialized roles within the legion. There are, at least, 12 different kinds, plus some Legion specific ones. Some Consuls will be familiar to any 40K player (e.g. Librarian, Chaplain, Legion Champion - aka Emperor’s Champion, Forge Lord - similar to a Tech Marine). Others, such as a Praevian, Master of Signals, Siege Breaker, Herald, Delagutus, Moritat or Vigilator have fallen out of use by the 41st millennium. But in Horus Heresy, they add a host of new abilities to your army.
The Legion Champion is chosen from the finest fighters in the legion, has access to the best weaponry and is normally tasked with slaying the mightiest warriors of the enemy.
I’ve included the original GW model for comparison.
I gave him the Anvilus Class backpack (also kinda liked that of all the legions, the Death Guard wouldn’t care about their increased radiation)
I swapped the head with Callus Typon’s helmeted head (as I’d using the bare head for Typhon himself)
I replaced the Power Sword with a more fitting Power Scythe - getting the arms and hands into a position that mimicked the pose of the original model was no easy feat!
Most difficult, was replacing the left leg to match the right - oddly, the original model has a MKIII leg and a MKIV leg (and as mentioned in previous posts, I wanted the army to be entirely MKIII)
I also added a Master of Signals and a Siege Breaker.
The Master of Signals links the front-line marines with their support elements and is capable of calling in orbital bombardments and improving marines targeting capabilities.
I again had to try and make a MKIII version as the Forgeworld model is in MKIV armor. Similar to the Apothecary, I carefully cut off as many bits from the original model (head, pouches, antennae) and glued them onto a MKIII body.
Finally the Siege Breaker. They lay waste to large strategic targets, lay siege to fortifications and lead armored spearheads. They give units an extra punch against vehicles and buildings and grant access to certain forbidden weaponry.
Forgeworld only makes a Siege Breaker in Terminator Armour (and then it was a special Events Day fig) so needed to make one in MKIII. Again, I dipped into my Iron Hands bits to find a suitably imposing head and backpack, converted up a combi-bolter/grenade launcher, and gave him the customary badge of honour, a Thunderhammer.
Hope you enjoyed this look at the HQ units and will continue next post with even heavier hitters.
Welcome back to this side trip into the Horus Heresy. In this post we’ll see the burgeoning Death Guard army grow into a proper fighting force.
A few caveats
First, last post saw the army in its infancy - not really playable. The next few posts will see the army quickly grow to ~3000pts - a mere trick of the internet. It really represents a couple of years of work.
Second, while this army has a fair bit of resin, it is entirely possible to play Horus Heresy without purchasing anything from Forgeworld. GW makes the basic units in plastic: HQs, MKIII and MK IV Troops, Cataphractii and Tartaros pattern Terminators and a Contemptor Dreadnought. If you are willing dip into the 40K range for vehicles and to do some simple conversions you can field most units.
That said, if you want to lean into the theme of your legion (e.g. Death Guard Power Scythes), use the actual 30K models for characters, speciality units or vehicles or get access to some of the harder to ‘counts-as’ models (e.g. Deredeo or Leviathan Dreadnoughts) you will need to pay up.
Last post the army had the beginnings of a Tactical and a Breacher squad, a 5 man Grave Warden Terminator squad, a converted Legion Champion, an Apothecary and 3 Quad Launchers.
I then added more Tactical marines in the form of a 5 man Tactical Support Squad with meltaguns.
In Heresy, Tactical marines have no special or heavy weapons options. Instead you can have dedicated special weapon or heavy weapon squads.
When determining what weapons to use, I followed Mortarian’s teachings -
“there is nothing that cannot be accomplished with a Bolter, Flamer and Meltagun.”
I also completed the Breacher squad, bringing them up to the 10 man minimum and added Sergeants to each squad.
I used the (now discontinued) Forgeworld Death Guard torsos and heads, the Andilus Backpacks and Power Scythes. The Death Guard can purchase Power Scythes (+1 St, -1 In, AP2 and +1 attack for each model in base contact) at the cost of a Power Fist.
I debated on how to best use the torsos, heads and backpacks - e.g. use them for every Death Guard, or interspersed them through-out the army, but eventually decided they would be mark of seniority among the legion and would only used them for Sergeants and other notable models.
I also completed the second Apothecary. My first Apothecary model was more or less the stock FW one.
But the other FW model is in MKIV armor (and as previously mentioned I only wanted MKII or III armor) so needed to convert/create a new Apothecary in MKIII armor.
So I hacked off as many tubes, vials and containers as I could from the original model and, along with the arms, combined them with parts from an Iron Hands Legion squad (which I picked up to use as bits). I think he looks, aside from fairly menacing, quite like a veteran Apothecary (minus the tabard).
Next up a look at some of the special characters.
Several years ago some friends tried to get me into Horus Heresy.
Playing both 40K and WHFB (and Warmachine and X-Wing), I wasn't looking for a new game, and one primarily dedicated to marine on marine action didn't strike me as being particularly exciting.
But, with my hobby drying up (and my miniatures packed away in storage), I gave it a go and found it a remarkably engaging and enjoyable game - what I feared would be a dull conflict between two identical sides turned into a deeper appreciate for the differences between the legions, largely omitted in 40K. With a host of new legion specific units, wargear and rules, I felt I was playing Marines with a whole new perspective.
I borrowed and proxied armies for a year, lamenting the lack of hobby tools/space when finally I broke down and decided to build a stock army - no conversions, just snip and glue - no hobby space required.
As to what army, that was long decided - the 14th legion, the Death Guard.
Having played mostly loyalist forces in 40K, switching sides for 30K seemed obvious. Of the traitor forces, there were a number of contenders: I liked the Sons or Hours and Emperors Children colour schemes, but wasn’t gripped by their backstory. Thousand Sons playstyle didn’t suite me (I had proxied a few games as I liked their imagery). Iron Warriors and World Eaters were too similar to other armies I had and other members of the group already played Night Lords and Alpha Legion.
In the end, it had to be the Death Guard. From a fluff perspective, I liked they always had their own agenda vs following Horus. I liked their relentless, no frills, approach to war, slow grind, use any weapon to achieve their objective. Their play style filled a particular hole amongst my armies - close range shooting, vs gun line or assault. And I liked their colour scheme (and painting a light coloured army would be new). There was also an easy tie into a Nurgle force in 40K, which I always wanted to build.
I'm also quite a fan of the Mk III 'Iron Armor' (which the Death Guard favor) and found I was quite militant about not having any Mk IV in my force. Unfortunately many of the HQ choices are in non-Mk III armor, so ended up converting several of them (so much for no conversions!)
I picked up a Battle of Calth box set (just as GW discontinued it) to get some ‘cheap’ plastic MKIII suits and got the Death Guard shoulder pads from Forgeworld. Also picked up a mix of Imperial Sector and Necromunda bases to allow for some scenic basing options without any hobby space or tools required.
Here is the army in its early days. The five tactical marines. I also got some Breachers, Grave Warden Terminators and the Apothecary/Legion Champion combo. Both the Apothecary and Breachers seemed to fit with Death Guard feel - marching forward, the ‘hardened armour’ of the Breachers shrugging off incoming incoming shells, the ‘feel no pain’ of the Apothecary pushing their unstoppable march forward.
I also dug out some old Thudd Gun’s I had for a Death Corp of Krieg army (it was just a fluke I was able to find these so easily). I thought these would make good Rapier Quad Launchers - they had a little more of that ‘old school’ artillery feel that the actual Rapier Carrier.
Here is a close-up on the first conversion - a Death Guard Legion Champion (next to a friend’s Thousand Sons as we compared our two different takes on this mini) - more on him later.
That’s it for now - next post will continue with the Death Guard as the army grows.
Greetings from the void. As I drift through the hobby nothingness I see a light from a far off distant sun. Around it spins of world that I might one day land upon and forge new wonders in the Emperor’s name.
That is to say, the renos are well underway, although taking substaintially longer that originally thought - an outcome anyone who has gone through the reno process will be well familiar with, I’m sure.
Me standing in the middle of the eventually man cave
Looking towards the man cave (furtherest door)
Realistically it will still be another 6 months to a year before the man cave is fully operational.
(thought I do plan to document its construction here). I have ambitous plans to have dedicated painting, building, airbrush, 3D printing and photo stations - we’ll see.
But, even the blackness between the stars is not empty and, aside from the occassional kickstarter comets I've hitch rides on, I have not been totally idle.
I have managed to get some 'low impact' hobby done, in the form of
a new 2000pt Horus Heresy 30K Death Guard army
a 30K/40K skin for the old WHFB Triumph and Treachery rule set
So expect at least 2 more posts after this one.
Next up - the 14th legion!
Sad news - at the end of 2019 it looks like MaxMini will be shuttering its doors.
https://maxmini.eu/blog/nothing-lasts-forever.html
MaxMini is an old school microcaster (circa 20111?) and over the better part of the last decade has turned out a good number of excellent bits and stand alone pieces. I've been fortunate to pick-up some of their bits, minis and vehicles over the years (their scrap tank is one of my personal favs).
I wish them all the best with their next projects and hope the line can continue with another owner.
Despite my best intentions, plans and feavered machinations, I (and my hobby and the blog) have sucum to life.
In the last year we have bought a new house, had a baby and started a new job. And while each of these things is awesome, I don't recommend doing them all at once. Renovation plans kept pushing back the new man-cave (and subsequent unpacking of any hobby) which largely didn't matter as there was no time to hobby anyway (see new baby and job)
Our little guy exploring his army options
I had back logged enough posts for 6 months, but that proved to be wholing inadquate.
What does this mean for the blog?
I would dearly love to start hobbying again and share anything of note here on the blog.
There are glimmers of hope. Our little guy sleeps reliably freeing up some evening time.
The new job is slowly becoming more managable. The one piece left is the basement renovations. In a perfect world the man cave is reconsistuted this year and balance is restored to the hobby world.
Thank-you to all who took the time to drop in from time to time.
Hope to be back up and running sometime this year.
Just a short post.
We've recently moved houses so I'm in the middle of constructing the new man-cave, which will allow me to actually unpack my minis and get back to work! Look for a short side series on its construction over the next month or so. As you can see 1) it is quite cave like and 2) there is lots to do!
In the interim we will endeavor to keep the posts coming. Here is the last known shot of the old desk. I've keep the image quite large so you can peruse all the WIPs.
The final painted pics of the Looted Wagon are just around the corner. Stay tuned!
Taking a short break from the Looted Wagon and going back to HQ choices with my second Big Mek, Major Buzdak.
Buzdak is most often found tooling around in his Battlewagon, ionized air crackling around it from his forcefield generator, as, like any good Mek, he careens in the most reckless way possible across the battlefield, oblivious to any incoming fire, until things end in a right proper pile-up!
First, full credit to highelf who I shameless copied the idea from - I mean... was inspired by. Check out his far better original on CoolMiniOrNot.
Here is a WIP shot of both Big Meks primed black after building, You can find my post on Big Mek Gogstompa (the one on the right) here.
Similar to Big Mek Gogstompa, Buzdak is takes his inspiration from the Imperium (in true Blood Axe fashion), and has similarly adorned himself in Mechanicus red robes (but with Orky dags instead of gears) - after all 'red ones go fasta!
The mini is the old metal GW Big Mek with Forcefield Generator. I've sculpted the hood (and added a few other targeting systems), converted his axe to a more Mechanicus looking gear and added the electrical arcs by bending stiff wire between the arc nodes.
Buzdak is accompanied by his (un)trusty Gort oilers. These guys are assembled from a random collection of bits:
He is also accompanied by another Mekano Squig from Wargame Exclusive. I love that its just a giant maw with legs!
And here is the group shot. The electric arcs don't show up very well against the white background so thought I'd try something a little different.
Hope you like these. If you do, follow me on social media to see more.
We'll get back to the Looted Wagon shortly!
The most potent of the Wargear options you can add to the Looted Wagon is the Kill Kannon. No need to make one of those with this kit - but what if you don't want one (I can't think of why, but, what if). Similar to the front gun, I built a transition piece that could replace the turret. I then added a hatch, also from Kromlech.
Then I got a little obsessive with the magnets. So, the transition piece is magnetized to the tank, the hatch is magnetized to the transition piece, the lid is is magnetized to the hatch and then the lid then has tiny magnets in the hinge so it can open and close (not completed in pic below).
And with one of Kromlech's tank crew added.
One of the pitfalls (and awesomeness) of so many magnets, is you can just keeping adding and combining pieces. So Kromlech's turrets (and associated guns) can also be added as an alternate.
And now we loose all pretense of useful wargear conversions. Without the turret and the steep angle of the front armour made me think this could be an an awesome tank destroyer. So built a gun, added a magnet and viola, an Ork StuG - but really just another Kill Kannon option.
And the last and most pointless conversion, I swapped out the engine plant in the back for a set of doors. The idea was that if the Looted Wagon was carrying troops, there should be an Access Point.
Finally, a shot of (most of) the pieces laid out. I did build a few additional options - Deff Rolla, a few more Big Shoota and Rokkit options, etc.
Hope you're liking this look at a, now fairly modular, scrap tank/looted wagon! Next post we get some paint on this bad boy.
Lets move from infantry models to something with a little more umf - tanks!
With the 7th Ed codex, many of the Ork vehicles got kick-ass new kits. Sadly, the Looted Wagon wasn't one of them and, in fact, would eventually be removed entirely by the time we got to the 8th Ed book - fortunately, it did reappear in White Dwarf a few months later.
So I was super excited when I found this on MaxMini - the Scrap Tank (this was long before it was re-purposed as part of their Green Alliance Kickstarter).
It's roughly the same size as a Leman Russ and is a beautifully detailed resin kit that works just perfectly with the new Ork look (as if it was designed too). Its super easy to build, consisting of a just an handful of parts but still has a fantastic level of detail.
Now, as awesome as this kit is, it did need a little work to allow for all the Looted Wagon wargear (e.g. Big Shootas/Rokkits, with and without a Kill Kannon, Deff Rolla, etc).
I started with the Big Shoota options. Instead of using the assault cannon that came with the kit, I magnetized a Big Shoota in its place.
I also added another magnet on top on the turret. It has my 'Longteef' banner to identify it as part of my Blood Axe clan, but it can be replaced with a cupola mounted Big Shoota (not pictured). That gave me two Big Shoots but I needed a third. So I used the big flat area on the front armour, added a third magnet and built a mounting bracket out of plasticard. I then magnatized that and added the Big Shoot from Kromlech.
Given the mounting point and the guns are all magnetized they can be removed/swapped, so I naturally added the other Kromlech guns (Skortcha, Rokkits, Kannon, plus Big Shoota) - just to have options :)
I now needed three Rokkit options. I used 2 of the existing magnets and added one more magnet in the smoke launcher (on the other size of the Kill Kannon).
But just to keep things interesting, what it the Rokkits were firing!
The Rokkits where made using the old Forgeworld Ork vehicle weapons kit. The Rokkits were cut free of their launchers. I took a wire and bent into a somewhat haphazard flight path and put one end into the Rokkit and puttied a magnet to the other. I then rolled a ton of green stuff balls of varying sizes to represent smoke blooms and built up a smoke trail, starting with the larger ones at the end working up to the smallest. The 'bubble' effect gets mitigated when they are painted and the cracks get filled up.
Next post the conversions deviate from just wargear and go slightly off the rails.
Ok, here is the final post for the Ork Burna unit with the inclusion of the leader, Mekboy Gear'ead Gazlugg. Gazlugg, like all of his ilk, has a desire to construct and deconstruct in equal measure.
He's really just the old stock plastic Mekboy with a bit of a fancy base. I've put him on 32mm to help distinguish him as the squad leader (that and his big shinny gun!)
And finally, here is the shot of entire 11 man squad. Not bad given 60% of the squad is based off 2 models.
A few years ago, in an effort to use up some long ignored minis, I found I still had two of the original metal Burnas. Having only 8 in my Burna squad it seemed like a good time to boost their numbers.
Of course I needed to convert them given I had already used these guys twice (so much for my original plan of no dupes!)
Nothing too complicated here - head swaps from Spell Crow, weapon swaps from the plastic Burnas.
Then came the hard part - cutting out parts of the metal back-packs and adding different fuel containers to each to change them up a little.
Next up is the Mekboy, who technically was done ahead of these two, but seamed like a better mini to end on.
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Back in 3rd Edition, Burnas were heavy weapon choices for the Boyz Mobs. With the arrival of 4th Edition they were taken out of the troops choices and became an Elite squad of their own.
So with 4 Burnas with no home, I set about getting to the minimum squad size: 8 Burnas plus a Mekboy. In the intervening years, 2 things had happened - GW had released their plastic Burnas and I had somehow acquired more of the original metal ones.
I built 2 of the plastics (with some slight modifications). I removed the straps (as I thought they didn't look quite natural) and kept the original masks to kept a consistent feel between the two types of models.
I then converted the 2 metal Orks. I swapped the weapons for ones from the plastic kit, and used the welder mask as I felt if was close enough in look to the originals.
Next up the squad leader: Mekboy: Gear'ead Gazlugg
Some Orks just want to watch the world burn. They are cleverly called Burnas.
During a Waaaah, these flame loving fellows are fearsome flamethrowers reducing all in their wake to molten slag or crumbling ash. Because their weapon of choice is also a powerful torch, they often join boarding parties where they can cut through the thickest bulkheads to gain entry or assault large warmachines to slowly dismantle them. In 'civilian' life, Burnas are often employed by Big Meks as welders in their construction projects or in scarp and salvage work.
My Burnas originally started out as heavy weapon options for my boyz mobs (as was the option in the 3rd ed codex).
I needed 4 Burnas for my 2 squads but GW only produced 2 single piece metal models (remember metal). Never wanting dups, I built two others using 2 standard Ork boyz, Burna mask heads, Scortchas from the old (metal) dreadnought and a few Skaven Warpfire Thrower backpacks.
Next up: more Burnas and what happens when Burnas become a squad of their own!
