Big Cats and small men

After a break from painting 15mm soldiers I decided that it was high time I opened the boxs of German forces I had 'on ice'. My original plan was to build a SS Genpanzerte Panzergrenadier force, but of course like most hobbyists of all forms, distraction is our biggest enemy. So now I find myself with 5 Tiger 1E's sat on my desk and various other platoons that I had never really considered

I'm going for a winter theme for these guys, all my Axis forces will be done with the same theme. Apart from a planned 21st Panzer Division in Africa for obvious reasons ;)
I'm thinking about modelling it in late winter as it offers the most in terms of weathering the vehicles and detailing the bases. It is also an opportunity to really get to grips with my airbrush.


Now for some photos, pretty self explanatory really. For those that are curious they are first given a coat of Vallejo Model Air Grey Primer and the Dunkelgelb base is Tamiya XF-60 Dark Yellow.

The army is from Grey Wolf and is a Schwere Panzerkompanie. For those that are interested here is the 1750pts list I will be using to start with:

CC Tiger

2 Tigers

2 Tigers

Gepanzerte Panzergrenadiers (full platoon)

2 Armoured Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad 2cm)

Scout (full platoon)

Rocket launchers (6 NW41)


Not a lot of models on the table compared to what I'm used to, my first army is British Paratroopers. Still I'm looking forward to the challenge of fielding them.

First two ranks of Tzeentch warriors finally done

Second batch of Tzeentch warriors

These take bloody ages to paint! But I think the results are worth the effort :) I will post pics of the two completed ranks as soon as I can.

Next up is the remaining individual warriors then the unit filler. Then I can start painting the other models I finished sculpting.
Once they are all done (I'm guessing that will be some time) I can begin converting Nurgle warriors from Black Orcs.

Finally I have cracked my Nurgle Lord!!!

It struck me whilst reading the feedback I received on warseer how important it is to embrace the critique of others and try and constantly improve your ideas and technique.
I have a very strong vision for most of my projects, but it's helpful to have an outsiders point of view once in a while. With that in mind I tried one more version of the lords head.
I'm much happier with this than previous ones and I am pretty certain he is now finished!?!
I also got some more accurate colour representation photos.

Nurgle Lord 99% finished on the painting

Nearly done on this bad boy. The Nurglings need some re-working to vary their colours and I have a few details and extra glaze's to do on the lord.
Hopefully get him finished tomorrow and then I will wait for natural light to get some good pics as I'm finding it hard to get the colours looking right in the photos with artificial lights.

The painting begins

After what seems like ages from starting this bad boy I finally got sometime to lay done some colour on him. I'm experimenting in painting in a slightly new way for me. I got some glaze medium to try and I'm trying to paint one area to 99% finished, then I can make minor adjustments once the model is 'complete'.
The skin has only had it's first coat, but the armor is 'finished'.

The rust is done using MIG pigments (The new Flames of War branded pack)

Nurgle Lord finished!!

After what seems like an age, I finally got him finished :D
Although I will be magnetsing the Nurglings to the palanquin so I can sculpt some new ones when my skills improve.

Nurglings (why do I torture myself?)

Inspired by a few peoples work on various forums and blogs I decided to have a go at making my own Nurglings for the palanquin of my Nurgle lord.
These are what I have managed so far, I need to add in more of the little fellas to fill the gaps and give it a nice dense appearance (like a swarm) plus add boils etc.
The faces are maxmini zombie heads.

Converted Nurgle Lord on palanquin

Moved him along a bit the other night. Not much left to do, rivets on the palanquin and then sculpting the Nurglings carrying him.

A few updates

This last week has seen me bouncing around from project to project. But I did manage to get some stuff moving along.
The first 5 Tzeentch warriors are done, the rest are on my work station awaiting attention.

Added the rivets and 'fuel' to the Hell Cannon plus treads on the wheels, which will also need rivets.

Finally my Nurgle Lord got himself a pet (not finished)

SAGA my first impressions

For those that aren't aware what Saga is follow the link for more information:
http://www.grippingbeast.com/
Or pick up a copy of Wargames Illustrated Issue 288 for an excellent feature by none other than gaming genius Mr Rick Priestly.


This is the first time I have written a review of any sorts, so apologies for the lack of sense and poor grammar that is likely to follow.


For the most part the rules follow standard fare, so movement and shooting have their own sections as does combat, all of which work as you would expect. The only real thing of note is a unit is activated and completes its move before you deal with the next unit you wish to activate.

What makes Saga so good in my opinion is the use of a battleboard, fatigue and the warlord himself.
You have a number of dice dependent on how many units you have at the start of your turn, they act in a similar way to card games in so much as 1-3 is common 4-5 uncommon and 6 is rare.
The dice are placed the board at the at start of your turn to activate a unit or give bluffs and de-buffs to your units and your opponents respectively. 
Units can also be activated multiple times in a turn at the cost of giving them fatigue, which in itself adds a layer if tactical play (more on that later)
Each factions board is different and reflect a general trait for that group. The Viking one is largely melee based with some nice options for reducing fatigue.


At first glance the board seemed gimmicky, but once I experienced it first hand I found it added a nice tactical element to your turn and I was always holding out for a great dice roll to implement a heroic maneuver. I found the combinations work much like the ones in Warmachine, although in Saga you are very much in the hands of the dice gods. I guess some will find that a turn off? but I never felt powerless to act even when I rolled lots of common dice scores.

Fatigue is gained for different reasons, activating a unit more than once incurs it, fighting in melee, having a friendly unit removed from play in close proximity also gives you a fatigue token. The system works very well, as you use your opponents fatigue to buff your unit or de-buff his. 
By using one of your opponents fatigue points (which is then removed) you can raise your armor by one point, in addition if he has another fatigue point left you can reduce his armor by one, either of these options is available to you. 
You an rest a unit to remove fatigue, but I found I didn't have the time to keep a unit stood around for a turn to achieve that.

The warlord is a real powerhouse and a true hero in game, he can move a unit and himself for free once a turn and he gets to ignore the first wound caused in any shooting or melee. Coupled with his ability to transfer wounds to his troops around him, he is highly survivable and tip the balance in combat. However left on his own he is pretty vulnerable.

In conclusion, I really liked the risk and reward aspect of the game, pushing your troops that extra step can bring great benefits, but ask to much of them and they can really suffer at the hands of the enemy. Only once or twice did the rules make it unclear as to the correct coarse of action, but that could also be down to lack of experience on our part.  
Although Saga leans towards historical gaming for obvious reasons, it's main focus is on playing a super hard warlord and his band of 'merry men', recreating the heroic tales of bearded men having what amounts to a Friday night ruck in some parts of the world ;)

For those that are members of the Brighton Warlords or can make it to the club on a Monday, I will be only to happy to give you a demo game once I have some opponents for my Vikings.

Tzeentch warrior test model

I thought I would treat myself to some painting after the sculpting marathon of the last few weeks. I have done a test model for the Tzeentch warriors.
Although he isn't really a test as such. Because each warrior will be painted in a different scheme, I'm not a fan of the unified look that most chaos armies have these days.
I much prefer the earlier days when chaos warriors looked different to each other and just more chaotic ;)
Although I'm willing to have each one in colours linked to his patron god, I can't picture a quartermaster handing out uniforms before a campaign.

Converted Nurgle Lord on palanquin

This is something I have been working on over the last couple of weeks in between other projects.
He is based on a plastic Ogre body.
The idea is he is a much favored warrior of Nurgle, hence his bulk and means of transport. The Nurglings will need sculpting.

These are some wip shots that I took along the way.

Scratch built Hell Cannon pt2

Just a quick update.
The green is in fact GW's Liquid Green Stuff, which I was somewhat dubious about using. It is in the normal GW price band ie on the dearer side, however I was very impressed by the ease of application and how well it sanded up.

It's fair to say it has found a home in my tool box, although I would most likely use it in scratch built projects and conversions rather than 'fixing' any problems with 'you know what'.

The model is around 80% complete, I want to add rivets and maybe some additional panels. I have started thinking about the crew, it's going to have to be converted regular Dwarfs, which should prove a bit of a challenge.

Tzeentch Sorcerer on disc (finished)

Finally got him finished last night. Not sure how long it took from start to finish as I work on several models at once. I find working in that way stops me ruining what I have sculpted until it's fully hardened.
The disc is fully scratch built, the armature was a piece of plasticard cut to shape with 30mm laser cut 1.5mm thick wooden discs glued to either side. It is also magnetised to the stand for easier storage.

Scratch built Hell Cannon pt1

Having decided I really loathe the official GW model for the Hell Cannon it was time to set about making one.

After looking around for kits I could alter, it became obvious that the only real option was to make it from scratch if I was going to get what I wanted.
Most of the inspiration for the model came from the new Chaos Dwarf machines from Forge World. I love the engineered approach of the new models, rather than the comic book demon engine look of the GW model.
The concept was a shortish barrel, more like a mortar and some sort of weapons on the front to represent it's close combat prowess. The Chaos Dwarf Tenderiser of yesteryear was the perfect starting place. It also gave me the chance to pay homage to one of my favourite models from the 'golden age'.

This is how far I have got over the last couple of nights, the construction is mainly balsa with plasticard used for the trim. The barrel and wheels are 30mm laser cut discs I picked up on e-bay sandwiched together with wood glue.
The wheels, barrel and front 'arms' are all loose, as I want to add trim and sculpt some details on.

Warriors of Chaos conversions and scratch built bits.

I am going for as many conversions as I can imagine in my Chaos army. Although this will prolong the length of the project I think the reward will be worth it.
So this is a Tzeentch bsb, the sword is intended to represent a daemon sword that's in control as much as the champion wielding it is. His head is getting turned in to a hawk/eagle mutation.

The next is a pretty straight forward addition to the excellent plastic Tzeentch sorcerer, I wanted to create some movement on the model as he will be mounted on a the scratch built disc (the middle object in the pic below). The flames seemed like the most obvious solution after trying to model a piece of cloth and failing miserably :(
He is in the aerly stages so it will need much more work before I'm happy with him.

The three pieces above are the Tzeentch warrior units standard, the disc and the Tzeentch bsb.

The finished unit looks like this, shields are off for painting ease, the Chaos stars are so bloody boring! which is why i filled them off. The shields will instead have homemade decals added to them.

Also the imminent release of Forge Worlds Tamurkhan The Throne Of Chaos has got me thinking about possible conversions on the Dwarfs I have lying around, more on that in the future.