Heavy Support: Hunter!

Not far off 6 months after unwrapping this model on Christmas Day I am finally able to present the completed Hunter anti-air unit. I used this unit as a motivator to help push me to complete my older units (I wouldn't allow myself to build/paint this unit until the half painted troops in my collection were all finished). While I have cheated slightly- leaving a Bike squad and Stern-guard Vet squad still unpainted, the rest are now complete. 

 I really enjoyed painting this model. Again, using the airbrush I was able to paint the armour in super quick time and using a tip I heard listening to a pod-cast in regards to Drybrushing (i.e. use a very large, super soft brush) I was able to complete the vast majority of the model within a couple of hours.

Over the last few units I can really feel an improvement in the quality of my fully painted units and combined with the use of the airbrush I feel like everything is really clicking into gear. Good thing I spent lots of my bonus on new models- wouldn't want to be running out just as its all coming together! ;)

GW: London!

So I recently had to attend a meeting in London and had some free time afterwards. What better than to sample some beers and visit some of the GW stores in central London! My first port of call was the GW store in Covent Garden.

This is probably the most unique GW store I have visited! It's pretty small, being built in the basement of the Victorian Covent Garden Market. It had a good selection of products but had (maybe not surprisingly) sold out of White Dwarf (the pre 7th Ed edition).

Next up (on my hunt for White Dwarf) was a trip over to the Oxford Road store. By this point in the afternoon I had consumed a *few* ales but still managed to locate the store without any problems- even though it was hidden in a rather faceless shopping arcade (mall). This store was much bigger; with some awesome gaming tables (see below) and of course very helpful staff on hand. Thank fully they had some copies of White Dwarf left! Mission Accomplished!!

Unfortunately by the time I had gained possession of White Dwarf, I had 5 pints inside me and had been walking around London for hours... so the White Dwarf was placed in my bad and didn't get looked until the following day.

GW Barcelona!

So I recently went on a bloody awesome holiday to Barcelona. Being the true nerd that I am, a trip to the local GW was on my list of things to go... along side visiting the Nou Camp & La Sagrada Familia.

After roaming the streets for hours we finally happened upon the store located in central Barcelona. I have to say that it was pretty descent! Loads of room, a good few tables and a great selection of products. Whilst there I bought the obligatory paint and, randomly, a Land Speeder Storm.

Big thanks to my other half who willingly allowed me to drag her around Barcelona on the penultimate day of our holiday just so her man-boy could get his nerd out.

Just because its so awesome, here are some pics from inside La Sagrada Familia.

Dedicated Transport: Rhino

I managed to get this bad boy painted over a weekend. As you can see I have used the Raptor Forgeworld modification kit. I think it looks pretty awesome and was a pleasure to paint now that I've modified my technique to take further advantage of my Airbrush.

The below photo's show off the Forgeworld front panel and side door. The modification pack cost about £8 from Forgeworld and helps transform a very basic, bog standard Rhino into something a little more unique and interesting.

Next up I will be continuing with the vehicle theme as I work on my Hunter/Stalker.

Troops: 3rd Tactical Squad

My final Tactical Squad is now done! This is my 3rd squad of Marines and is my 4th troops choice along side my squad of Scout Snipers. Following on from my Command Squad on which I used the airbrush, I used the same technique for these guys... which meant I have been able to complete the whole squad in less than a week. For me that is very good!

As this is a troop choice I decided not to devote an extensive amount of time of ensuring that every tiny detail is painted flawlessly however I considering the balance of time v quality, I am happy with how they have come out.

The unit is made up of models donated by my chum Bob and so are a repaint over the top of his paint scheme. This did mean that some of the finer details were lost but again, these guys are only a troop choice and so im not going to worry about that too much.

Net up is the Rhino for these guys.

Warhammer World Trip Booked!

Last December a friend and I met up at Warhammer World for a day of gaming. He lives in the north of England and I live in the south west so Nottingham is more or less half way for us so is perfect for when we can get weekend passes from our other halves to go and play with our toy soldiers. Having just had our table bookings confirmed for the end of July I am very excited to our next visit.

This time we are planning to play games on both a Saturday and Sunday and we're aiming to go BIG. For the Saturday we've booked the daddy, Fort Pain, weighing in at 12 x 6 this board is the daddy. We are going to aim for (after a warm up game or two) a 5000 point battle to take full advantage of the board. This will literally involved all my models, whether painted or not and my friend will need to assist my force with the donation of his Grey Knights and Imperial Knight. 

When I saw this table during our previous visit I fell in love with it and am very excited about being able to play on it. Warhammer World is open to 10PM on a Saturday so our plan is to game into the evening, having our lunch and dinner at Bugmans Bar... oh and a few pints of ale as well!

For the Sunday we have booked the smaller, but modular, Doom of Gorgon table. This is a normal 6 x 4 board using the Realm of Battle pieces. I'm really looking forward to playing some smaller games (compared to the 5k mayhem) on a more relaxed Sunday.

Now that the weekend has been booked I have a deadline to get as many models painted as possible. I have a plan and will do my best to get as much done as possible. With the Emperors guidance I'll complete my goals and allow my friend and I to play some epic games with fully painted armies. Game on!

Progress Update

So after finishing my final troops choice I figured I should get all my painted models out to see what my force looks like on the table. My completed units total up to around 2400 points! Not bad progress for under 6 months of work.

I still have lots to of models to work through, however, I am not far off being able to field a fully painted army based on the real world army lists which I have been drawing up. Happy days!

HQ: Command Squad

Following on from the Devastator Centurions, next up is the Command Squad which Bob gave me as part of his Space Marine donation at the beginning of last year. I painted this unit in a slightly different manner to my previous Space Marine troops in that I used my airbrush: I had been a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to take full advantage of the Airbrush whilst working on this army. Thankfully I was wrong! Using the Airbrush to paint the base coat and first highlighted layer I was able to further highlight the armour and for the result to maintain the look of the my previously painted units.

I spent a lot of time focusing on the details on this unit; adding a Grey Knight helmet, a demon head and some other little bits and pieces to add a more unique feel to the squad. Below you can see pics of each individual member of the unit.

The Standard Bearer has a Grey Knight helmet and I used the masking tape method to help achieve straight lines on the banner. With the added Grey Knights helmet I think this guy looks pretty awesome!.

On this model I replaced his left hand with one holding a severed Demons head. I also added a Grey Knight sword. During painting I added some Blood For The Blood God technical paint to the sword, head and also some drops on to the base/marines shoes to simulate the blood from the vanquished demon.

And here are the 3 remaining members of the squad. I'm very happy with how this squad has come out: I painted them in under a week (which is good going for me!). I don't know whether the unit will be included in any of my army lists however its an interesting unit and another section of my unpainted army finished off. On to my 3rd Tactical Squad!

Heavy Support: Centurions

Today I want to present pictures of my recently completed Devastator Centurions. These models have been on my hobby desk for about 3 weeks but I recently managed to sit down, put in a good shift and get them finished. I hope you enjoy how they turned out!

This is the unit Sergeant, equipped with Omniscope and Grav Cannon/Grav Amp.

I'm reasonably happy with how this unit has turned out. I did have to paint the majority of the squad with a paint brush that had certainly seen better days and once it had given up the ghost I was forced to conclude the painting using a fine detail brush... I guess this contributed to the drawn out final 10 hour painting session I fought through to the get the unit completed.