Updates

Well back again.

It's been a well over a month since my last post. I was intending to have this particular post posted a week or so after the last but I ended up having quite a bad flare of crohns/colitis, which got to the point of getting me in hospital for a few days. Le Joy.

But all is well now; my health had deteriorated quite a bit over the past 3 months, and though having to go into hospital it was what I needed to get back to a point where I can keep on top of it.

Back to the hobby!

I have started to go through all my GW projects to work out what needs to be done. For the most part none of them are painted (with the exception of a few test pieces for High Elves and some of my Eldar which were painted many years ago in a different scheme to what I intend to do now)

40K

Eldar

My 40k projects are mostly centred around Eldar, being my primary army/detachment. I also have an Inquisitorial and Dark Eldar force in the works but as Allied/Inquisitorial Detachments.

Currently my Eldar consist of:

HQ

·         The Avatar of Khaine (Both GW and FW Variants)

·         2 Autarchs

·         2 Farseers

·         7 Warlocks

·         Eldrad

·         Asurman

·         Fuegan

·         Baharroth

Troops

·         10 Guardian Defenders

·         10 Storm Guardians

·         20 Dire Avengers

·         5 Rangers

Elites

·         6 Striking Scorpions

·         12 Howling Banshees

·         6 Fire Dragons

·         6 Harlequins- Including Death Jester and Shadowseer

Fast Attack

·         6 Warp Spiders

Heavy Support

·         5 Dark Reapers

·         1 Fire Prism

·         2 Wraithlords

·         1 Wraithseer

The army is primarily centred around Aspect Warriors. I was originally going to paint them as Siam Hann, but I've slowly leant towards Biel Tan. The Biel Tan Fluff is more fitting to my play style/list building, and their colour scheme and iconography has grown on me.

I would like to add a Falcon/Wave Serpent and a Wraith Knight at some point for some more heavier mobile support. I may also add a flyer and some Wraithguard/blades later down the track. I would like the add more Storm Guardians if I can track down the metals. Overall it's a fairly straight forward project; most of the models are metal, either solid piece or just need an arm or two glued on. The main assembly work will be the Wraithlords/Seer and the Prism.

I am planning to do some conversion work, mainly for the Phoenix Lords, Autarchs and some Exarchs to make them more unique.

Dark Eldar

Dark Eldar is an army I have considered for a while, but mainly in the role as an allied detachment.  I picked up some of the metal DE characters in the 2010 release, being the Archon, Lelith and Urien , and acquired a mix of Incubi, both new and old metals. My aim is to use them as a fast support army with my Eldar, though I may grow them to a larger size to use as a primary detachment. I have picked up a few boxes and so far have:

HQ

·         1 Archon

·         Urien

·         Lelith

Troops

·         2 Boxes of Kabalite Warriors

Elites

·         6 old school Incubi

·         5 Current edition Incubi

Fast Attack

·         8 Scourges

·         3 Venoms

Heavy Support

·         1 Talos

All currently NIB except the Metals. I also have been picking up a ton of bits for conversions, primarily for True Born and Hekatrix Blood Brides. I'm mainly planning to run multiple small units in Venoms, to balance with my Eldar which lack fast units (With the exception of the Battle Focus ability). I may pick up a Raider or Two down the track to use larger units sizes, but will see what happens.

Inquisitorial Project

This project is rather ambitious, though not large...with the exception that I'm hoarding whatever relevant Daemon/Witch Hunter metals as I can and endless amounts of conversion bits. I have always loved the background and imagery surrounding the Inquisition, and whilst I was in hospital I finally finished reading the Eisenhorn omnibus by Dan Abnett. Definitely worth a read if you ever intend to build an Inquisitorial force, it really gives you an insight in how they operate and the character development of the Inquisitors and their retinues- You will just be bubbling with character ideas and conversion possibilities.

Primarily this a modelling project, and  will vary greatly in content, mostly focusing on the Inquisitors and their retinues/henchmen. I do intend to run them as an Inquisitorial Detachment with my Eldar/Dark Eldar, but the modelling itself (primarily for Henchmen) wont strictly adhere to the unit entries. Basically I will model units based on having character and unique composition/background rather than trying to strictly to matching unit entries.  I intend to make at least Inquisitor of each Ordo with an array of henchmen, but likely will end up have multiple of each. I currently just have a pile of bits and metals that I have been acquiring over the years, and will keep updates whenever I start putting things together.

One of the Inquisitorial piles

WFB

This post is already quite long, so I will cut this part short for the moment. I have of course my High Elves, which have only changed slightly since my last updates in regards to them . I no longer have a White Lion Chariot, Bolt Thrower or Dragon Princes as I wasn't really using them. I did acquire more Sword Masters to make a unit of 21 and a Sea Helm. Other than that not much else. Most things are assembled and waiting to be primed, with the exception of some of my Lords/Heroes. I have found with Fantasy that I end up with a large amount of character models and bits because I can't decided how to equip them- a sign I need to get playing :P. I plan on picking up another box of Phoenix Guard and White Lions to bring them up to units of 20, and I'd like to get a Dragon down the track.

I have started also started both Skaven and Dark Elves. So far I have the Warhost of Naggaroth, 20 Witch Elves, 10 Dark Riders, 10 Executioners, a War Hydra and a Cauldron, all still on sprue with an assortment of Characters for Dark Elves. As for Skaven, I know I have 20 Storm Vermin, a Hellpit Abomination, a Doom Wheel, a Screaming bell/Plauge Furnace (1 kit magnetised for both), 7 rat ogres and an assortment of characters. As for Clan rats, I don't recall how many I have. I have at least 2 IOB boxes worth, then plus a few more clanrat boxes worth. I would say around 80-120. I will likely be going through and picking out unarmoured ones to use as slaves. I will give more detailed listings of them when I end up going through them.

Well those are my GW projects which I will be working on. I do have some historical projects, but I touch on them on an off, so will only update those when something actually happens with them.

I am wanting to start getting into the gaming side of things proper, so have been a bit more motivated to get my armies together. There is a Gaming Open Day coming up in a few weeks for the Canberra Northern Suburbs Gaming group, which will be a great way to meet other gamers and get involved. I may even be participating in a Apocalypse Game on the day which will be a good way to get a grasp on 7th ed 40k, so I am wanting to try and get 1500-2000pts of Eldar and Dark Eldar together to use for that. I also intend to take advantage of Battlefoams likely Black Friday Sale at the end of November, and order a 720 case. I have a 432 for my HE and one for my Skaven, but would like to pick up the 720 so I have 1 bigger bag for a larger force/models. As I will be designing custom trays, I always prefer to have the models on hand and assembled so I can make the right measurements- especially as I can incorporate magnetisation into it. So getting my Dark Eldar and some of my Dark Elves together will be of great benefit to that since I plan to pick up trays for my 40k as a whole and my Dark Elves.

Another long post, I intend to start getting some things together over the next few days so will update as I go.

Farseer heads

Continuing on from my last post, I have been playing around with my Farseers head options.

Other than the ghost helm, I have 2 other candidates:

The first option is using a head from a reaper model, specifically Professor Laura Pringle. I wanted the head to have an 'open helmet' feel to it, so I took a Dire Avenger helmet and removed most of top parts, leaving the neck and jaw parts. I then shaved down parts of the head to socket it in, Still playing around with it, I may need to redo the Avenger helmet and green stuff. The plastic hair piece was removed from one of the Dark Elves dragon sorceress.


 Which brings me to the second bare head option. Using one of the Sorceress heads from the Dark Elf Dragon kit. I removed top knot which I added to the first head, and used a different hair piece from the Dark Eldar Wyches kit. Works quite nicely, however, the head doesn't have a neck, I'm currently working out how I want to go about that, either doing something similar with the reaper one, or sculpting a neck. I want to have all 3 magnetised to I can interchange them all.

Why 3 heads? As I said before, I like options even if they are just aesthetic. In this particular case I wanted to use the ghost helm and a bare head. The reaper head was the first one I worked on, and since its using a non GW part, I wouldnt be able to use it in a GW store. I haven't played in a long while, and don't know if I would do so in a GW store, but I wanted to make a 'GW friendly' bare head anyway. I quite like both so far, so will see how they look with the end result, whenever that may be...

I'm currently going through all my Warhammer/40K armies to work out what I had in the works (which is without a doubt, a lot),My next post will probably be an outline of everything I am currently working on, noting down any planned conversions or anything out of the ordinary. I'm currently wanting to work on my Dark Elves, but I will likely jump around between them all.

Lets turn back the clock...

Hello!

Well, it has been a while...nearly 14-15 months since my last post...

I have noticed that the blog has still had some regular viewing traffic throughout the hiatus, so if you were awaiting my next post, which was to detail my female Farseer conversion, I do apologize.

The past year has been interesting. I started University, studying European history, German and English. It's the first proper academic study that I have done since finishing high school back in 2010, so it has taken some getting used to; particularly getting back into the gist of essay writing, researching, and general punctuation and grammar (which I am likely completely butchering here). Early July this year I also moved interstate to the ACT, which has been quite full on, but I'm now settled, in the routine of things, studying, started an awesome job, and ready to pick up from where I left off.

A few things have changed hobby wise since then, due to moving I sold of excess models and a few collections. The main collection I sold was my Flames of War, which isn't a big deal since I never made a post on them. I do intend to pick it up again at some point, but I'm going to wait until more of the new plastic kits come out, and when I'm more solid on a list (As I can never decide, ever). Other than that I sold off excess kits that I could easily acquire again, such as my Eldar Grav tanks, Wraith guard and Wraith Knight (both of which were still in the box).

Of course, I have also acquired some new things. I have started Skaven and Dark Elves, picked up a few Bolt action models, and also started a Malifaux crew, being Hamelin. It's a never ending cycle of culling and growing really.

I am aiming to try and get in a post a week/fortnight, and also some regular modelling and painting going. I really dropped the ball in this area of late, so I'm hoping to keep things consistent, even if I'm only doing one model a week or fortnight; as long as I am doing something.

Now for the female Farseer conversion...

Witchblade

The conversion was fairly simple for the most part. I removed the top half of the torso above where the sash/belt started, and replaced it with a Sister of Avalon torso. Cutting down the torso to fit snugly was a bit tricky at first, so If you do use this method, make sure you have a few on hand, as I ended cutting a few down too much. But once you get it snug it works great. I also filed parts of the cloak interior to help with getting it in. I then green stuffed any gaps, and part of the sash where I had made some cuts. When doing this, be careful of the wraithbone loincloth thing. It can be easy to accidentally apply pressure to it, so be wary of that so you don't end up breaking it.

The head and blade arm is also magnetised, since I like to keep the options open, even if some are just aesthetic. I had also removed the 'beard' on the Ghosthelm and smoothed it to make it more feminine. I do plan to give her a bare head option, but I am still playing around with that.

Overall it was a relatively simple conversion that achieved a great result. That is all for now, I hopefully will have another update sometime next week.

No weapon arm

Singing Spear