Nurgle Prince on Micro Art Bases - Review

I recently bought some Micro Art Studio bases from All Sorts Emporium. I wanted something swampy and gurgly and Micro Art was the only manufacturer that I could find.

http://www.shop.microartstudio.com/swamp-bases-c-3_49.html

The quality is superb and there is an amazing range. The only feature that I have added to these are the two heads.

The only problem is that they are not cheap - about E1 per 25mm base and E5 for the 50mm base under the Daemon Prince. That is a bit too steep for me, I am afraid, for all but special models - as it works out at about £8.50 of our debased Pounds for a ten man squad.

Still, if you have the cash to flash, I recommend them.

John

Blood Pact - Salvaged Leman Russ Tanks

I decided to give my Blood Pact a Leman Russ squadron, partly to pacify the local GW store manager when I wanted to use my pact army in the shop. I wanted the tanks to clearly be salvaged and rebuilt battle wrecks so I have put in some modifications.


They carry Chaos symbols of various sorts, Khorne and Chaos undivided, with some skulls on spikes, heads etc, representing the previous owners of the vehicles. The Blood Pact tend to put the prvious owner's head on a spike as their equivalent to sending a Vehicle Change of Ownership Notification to the Ministry.




The first tank is a bog-standard Leman Russ that was clearly captured as a going concern - along with two of the crew!


The second is a salvaged wreck with a burnt out turret that has been rebuilt as an assault gun with the battle cannon mounted in the hull. None of the secondary weapons were left in working condition so the Blood Pact articifers mounted a heavy stubber in a pintle mount.





The third vehicle is another salvaged wreck. This one still had a working turret and lascannon. the side sponson controls were unrepairable so the articifers have removed them and mounted the heavy bolters in cut outs where they can be operated manually. Reactive armour has been added, notably around the turret.

Siege of Vrak II Renegades

I have been creating some new troop types for the Renegade Army List from the Siege of Vrak Volume II.

Here are two 20-strong units.

Beatmen are a new troop type. These are old Warhammer beastmen that can be bought for a song on the web. The pose really suits a 40K army. The shooters are mostly cut down lasguns and the 'skull' resin bases are from Foundations of War.




The Khorne Berserkers are an elite choice. This is my bBand of Brass unit (as opposed to Bass Brand). The 'rock' resin bases are again from Foundations of War.




The forty resin bases cost me £8 plus postage. What a bargain.

New IG Vehicle Kits

Popped in to GW Maidstone to buy some paints and discovered that Gary, the manager, had finished painting the new Executioner and Hellhound kits for display. he used a really simple olive green (Cadian Green) that I think looks great. I like simple paint jobs on vehicles. I tend to put my effort into weathering. Complex camouflague schemes never seem to look quite right.

Soul Grinder

It has taken me a year but I have finally finished my Soul Grinder. It's pretty much straight out of the box except for the addition of some chaos and Khorne icons.

I decided to use multiple layers rather than detail to get the impression of a living machine slowly morphing into a Khorne daemon.

I only have a Tzeentch chariot to do and my army is finished. I intend to have it pulled by giant seahorses.

Book Signing

Just to remind anybody who is in easy reach by train or car of the North Kent coast on Saturday, who would like to read some books wot we rote:

Sci-Fi & Fantasy Book Signing
July 18th 11am – 1pm

Dan Abnett
Dr Who, Torchwood, Primeval, Warhammer 40,000
John Lambshead
Lucy’s Blade, Warhammer Ancients
Sandy Mitchell
Warhammer 40,000

The Rainham Bookshop
17-19 Station Road
Rainham
Kent
ME8 7RS
Tel: 01634 371591
Fax: 01634 365046
shop@rainhambookshop.co.uk

Blastscape

My Blastscape markers have arrived.

They are certainly of a decent size for wargaming and good value for money ar under £12.

The only criticism that I have is that the plastic is very thin and hence slightly warped.

Treadhead Heaven

Popped into my local GW for a game to find that they were making new tanks.

They have built the Hellhound as well. It is a very nice model. Much better than the old one.

John

Resin Bases - Foundation of War - Review

I was doing a trawl through eBay.co.uk for any deals on resin bases, when I came upon the Foundation of War shop. They also have their own webshop here:


https://sslrelay.com/www.foundationsofwar.co.uk/sess/utn;jsessionid=154a5b7f2531dfa/shopdata/index.shopscript

They have a large range of square, rectangular and circular bases in various themes. What astonished me was the price, eg. £2 for ten 25mm or three square 50mm or one round 60mm base.

I purchased a few of their lava bases and was so impressed that I bought their ruined temple bases for my Slaaneshi forces.

They are really good and paint up well with well defined shapes that give depth to what is, actually, a flat base.

The pic shows a few bases, there are quite a range of different sculpts so things don't look too samey.

The only criticism I would make is that it is obviously a small outfit and can be a bit slow to deliver - up to eight days - but I can wait.

The price-quality ratio is excellent - they don't overcharge on postage either.

John

Pink & Blue Horrors - the Source

I now know where I lifted the idea of using dryads for Pink Horrors. It was a post by Big D on the the Hogs of War site:

http://www.thehogsofwar.com/2009/05/pink-horrors-conversion.html

The picture is taken from a very good group site to which he belongs. As you can see, he did rather a better job than me.

Big D comes from Arkansas - I have it on good authority that this is pronounced Arkansaw - which is a long way from Southern England.

Happy gaming, chaps!


John

BOOK SIGNING

I am at a book signing at a Science Fiction & Fantasy signing on Saturday morning, the 12th of July at Rainham Bookshop with Dan Abnett and Sandy Mitchell from 11am to 1pm.

Dan Abnett is best known for his Gaunt’s Ghosts military SF series and his Dr Who, Torchwood and Primeval novels.

Sandy Mitchell writes the popular Cain series of novels.

And I will be signing copies of Lucy’s Blade.

Rainham Bookshop is in Station Road, just off the A2 in the centre of Rainham Village. There is a large car park behind the shop. It is 50 metres south of Rainham Railway Station – a mainline station connecting Victoria (London) to Dover.

See: http://www.rainhambookshop.co.uk/
http://www.rainhambookshop.co.uk/calendar/event2.htm

The Rainham Bookshop
17-19 Station Road
Rainham
Kent
ME8 7RS
Tel: 01634 371591
Fax: 01634 365046
shop@rainhambookshop.co.uk

Planet Strike - Thoughts about daemons

I have reread the Daemon Codex carefully and I think I klnow what went wrong (see previous post). Daemons have a Daemonic Assault, which is treated using the Deep Strike rules. However, no daemons are listed in the OOB as Deep Strike but as Daemons (hence daemonic assault). If you assume that Daemonic Assault is Not Deep Strike then no daemonic units can assault on first turn, indeed, many have to land off table.

That severely restricts the daemon army in Planet Strike and stops it running wild on turn one.

Problem solved.

John

Planet Strike - First Game

I played my first game of Planetstrike last weekend. I was the attacker with a Daemon Army and my friend Shaun deployed his IG and three Bastions as the defenders. Both armies were around 2,000 points.

I started with the Firestorm and rolled nine attacks. We agreed that Guard units targetted could take cover in their lines. Ducking and covering gave them a 2+ save so few were killed but most units were 'gone to ground'.

All the daemons can deep-strike by definition so the bulk of my army arrived on turn one in the midst of the defenses and could assault straight from deep strike (Planet Strike rule). We agreed a house rule that the Guard would still get the 2+ save on the first turn of combat but that only delayed matters a little. By the end of turn three the Guard were mincemeet and it was all over.

The Bations Interceptor guns had little impact on the game, performing better as normal guns.

The Planet Strike Rules combine to make a daemon attacker damn near unstoppable; there was nothing Shaun could do.

One could remove the firestorm from daemons as that would leave the defender up and shooting on turn one.

Anyone else played a game yet?

John