zombies

Everyone I know seems to have a box of zombies at the back of their cupboard. Often there is no memory of how they even got there. This seems appropriate for zombies. These ones lurked unloved and unpainted for far too long, but have now crawled out of their toxic barrels, ready to shamble into whatever undead filled horror is required. (Most likely as totencorps for K-47.)

I had a play with a newish Citadel paint, Hexwraith Flame. Put it on a light base with a pale grey highlight and it can really glow. It behaves a bit like an ink, so my experiment of using red ink on the same models wasn’t entirely successful, loosing the bright finish. The end result is OK, but didn’t need expensive green paint to achieve. I’m looking at this as a bonus. The models are painted and I’ve learnt a bit about a new paint line from GW.

The models are Eureka Miniatures, and are their usual excellent standard with lots of different poses, which is a real plus for metal figures. From the same manufacturer are these toxic-waste zombies, emerging from mysterious barrels of goo. Good fun.

See you in the wastelands

 

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So Arc happened

So how much do you love gaming? I love it enough it enough to get out of bed early on the weekend to cross town to attend the biggest 40K event (in Melbourne, anyway).

Before this weekend I have had exactly one game of 8th edition 40K. Not a great apprenticeship I know, but I figured at 12 or pages of rules, well, how hard can it be?

Pretty hard, it turns out. I took a 5th ed war band to an 8th ed gun fight. While I had six fun games, I had my arse handed to me every which way but winning. My opponents were all great. There were some very cool armies on show too. There are a fair few pictures on Instagram using #arc40K if you want to check some out.

Here is day one. Imagine ugly detail of poor chaos deployment, ineffective shooting, failing to reach close combat and forgetting to use special rules and upgrades, and you get the general idea.

Game 2: Nurgle

Game 3: Nids

Game 1: Custodes

Day two – rinse and repeat:

Game 4: Imperial Fists

Game 5: Guard

Game 6: Nids (Hive Fleet Krakon)

I did have fun, but one thing really bugged me about the current rules. Basic tactics just don’t seem to matter. Flanking is pointless, terrain doesn’t matter. And the command bubble type powers seemed to combine with big units to see every game end up as two, then one, big blob. Even so (and even while getting thrashed), I still laughed and shouted along with the rest of the participants. It was 40K after all, and it is nothing if not boisterous.

I’ve had my fill of the grim-dark for now.  I’m content to leave those that enjoy 40K to roll their buckets of dice. There is a game for everyone out there. Maybe we’ll play one together sometime soon.

cheers.
D.

The Eidolon Rides To War

Can you hear the susurrous of brushes and crazed muttering of gamers as they prepare for a convention?

Arc40K, Melbourne’s longest running 40K tournament is this weekend, so I’m sure lots of folk are madly putting the finishing touches on their armies. Well, I’m ready, but given I only had part of one model to paint, this isn’t so surprising. It was, however, a model that has languished for years unfinished. Fear my Helldrake, it is finally ready to fly over the the grimdark battlefields of the far future!

A bit of mobility and firepower for my Wordbearer coven, most of which I think may have already appeared on this blog over the years. They’re getting on a bit, but I’m reasonably happy with them and it will be fun to have on the table again.

The Eidolon himself: warlord in terminator armour

Terminator champion, “I don’t need armour”.

Cultists, because why wouldn’t you bring a knife to a far-future gun fight?

Dark Apostle conversion

Dreadnought hell-thingy, tooled up for shooting

Plus the daemonettes I shared last-time. Lot’s of them.

Maybe I’ll see you across a table.

Happy gaming.

The road to Arc40K

Arcanacon is convention dear to my heart. Arc40K is an institution on the Melbourne 40K calendar, and deservedly so. It is only a fortnight away and with lists due soon I headed to the shed and pulled out some models. The decision on which one to take was easy, the only current codex I own is the Chaos Space Marine one. Job done.

Arc has always been a full hobby weekend: painting, sports and games, so most people bring some fiction and otherwise go the extra mile to really make their armies drip with theme. Here is my modest effort, background for a Word Bearer coven.

The Eidolon Speaks:

Do you want to live to ever?

Strive to shed the pathetic meat-sacks that bind your souls.

Shrive yourself with bolter and flame.

Strive to Glory on a tide of blood to honour our Dark Lords.

Pave the way to daemonhood with the eviscerated remnants
of the pathetic followers of the rotting corpse-emperor.

Well, do you?

[
The incensed filled landing bay of the deep-space transport filled with raised voices and the crashing of metal as fists beat time on shining armour. Lines of sigil-tattooed marines filed into the waiting landing craft, which roared to life and exited for the short drop the world below.

The Eidolon smiled as he felt the stirrings in his viscera and in the air around him from the pressure on reality as his allies from the warp pushed on the world-membrane, eager to enter this realm and taste blood once more.

The Eidolon smiled.

Soon.

Who wants to live forever?

The Eidolon.

And the pending carnage will bring his plans one step closer.
]

see you in the grimdark

I’ve been hiding in my bunker

Been spending a lot of time in my bunker, so I thought it was time to get some paint on it.

It’s a Warlord Games bunker, for 28mm. It was nice to pick up a brush again, even if it was the largest one I own.

I hold out some hope to get it on the table soon.

D.

Paint All The Minis

I’m on another podcast!

Paint All The Minis is the brain child of Dan Adams, who each week has a chat with someone about gaming. This episode Dan and I speak about K-47, but with more than 100 shows recorded, if that’s not your thing there is sure to be one that is.

What other gaming related post casts are people listening to?

Two houses, alike in dignity

I picked up two new games recently, both of which could be loosely described as skirmish games based on the dark ages. Lord of the Rings battle game from Games Workshop, and SAGA: The Viking Age, by Studio Tomahawk. Both are lovely games. The first editions of both were pretty simple, and I suspect (and hope) that the second editions will be even better, with those little wrinkles ironed out.

I haven’t played SAGA for a long time, but I remember it is the better game of the two. The challenge of managing your saga dice on the battle board is engaging and the opportunity (need) to use your abilities and dice every phase keeps you at the table.

The King had not yet returned when I last played Lord of the Rings, whatever that year was. The new book looks pretty, but to be honest the length of the rules compared to SAGA means I haven’t really looked at that one yet. I bought this LotR on a whim, partly because I have some armies and partly because, being GW, it will be relatively easy to get a game in should I want.

So, not a review, as I’ve done no more than skim the books, and nor have I played any games yet. Consider this more a statement of intent.

Now, back to painting some shield maidens that arrived in the post …

US Motor Pool

I’ve been adding to my 28mm US, getting some additional vehicles done because nothing says US Army more than lots of materiel. I think I’ll add some more weathering, but they are coming along OK. They even had a spin around the table and I’m pretty happy with how they performed. On a side note, inexperienced Shermans are actually just a little bit rubbish. Although, leaving the top hatch open and using the pintle-mount was fun; throwing out 15 MMG shots, even at -1 to hit for being inexperienced, was a rare treat.

See you on the battlefield.
D.

Gaslands, it’s still cool

A few months ago I wrote about how much I liked Gaslands from Osprey Publishing, a game of vehicular mayhem set in a bleak far future. Since then it has been one of the games I have played most frequently, but always with just two players. Well that changed last week, with a chance to play my first multi-player game. Dial up the carnage to FUN.

Here are some photos from the night. There were some great cars on show. I’ve tried to credit where I can, but apologies if I’ve got any wrong.

Drew misses Brad’s car but hits the building; poor choice.

My ram car (blue) sideswipes Brad’s rocket buggy (Purple)

Nik’s buggy

Ryan’s performance car is the red one; fast, but not fast enough to out run rockets

Top to bottom: Dave, Brad, Drew, Ryan

The game did slow down a bit, but I think much of that was that for many of us it was their first game. Drew took honours on points, as we didn’t manage a complete lap before the store closed, but was clearly ahead with two cars left running. The rest of us were in flames, few hull points or pointing the wrong way from failed flip checks. Great stuff. We’re assembling again next week to do it again.

Time to hit the garage and make sure my cars are running sweet for Wednesday night.

Brrm, brrm.
D.

The Stix Brothers

I’ve managed a fair bit of painting recently, mostly working on WW2 US that I will be able to field for either Konflikt 47 (with a jump walker) or Bolt Action (with a Sherman). However, I haven’t managed to finish anything. With a goal of at least finishing something, I have done a quick job on three simple, but very nice miniatures from Warlord Games, The Stix Brothers.

My faces are terrible, something to work on (it’s my painting, not the minis), but with the wide brim you can’t see that part while you’re playing 😉

They are from a new game, Strontium Dog, based on the 2000 AD characters. Warlord Games have acquired the license for the whole 2000 AD universe, so this is just the first of many titles to come that will use variations of a new game system. I have now listened to one whole podcast about Strontium Dog, so I’m in no position to comment, other than it sounds (and looks) pretty cool. While many fans will be looking forward to a new incarnation of everyone’s favourite fascist, Joseph Dredd, I’m holding out for Slain and Rouge Trooper.

The miniatures are not particularly cheap, but they are not outrageous either, especially from the world of licensed-figures. And my-oh-my Toto, the figures are very nice, a real pleasure to paint.

Now back to the paint station.