Yet Another Deathwing Force

I'm surprised the net hasn't collapsed under the weight of Terminator armour this last week or two. Everyone and his mother has finally started work on the Dark Vengeance models and adding a smattering of the new Dark Angel releases.

The Grotto is no exception to this I'm afraid!

In the most traditional sense of bandwagon jumping, and having almost started this force at some point during each of the four codexes, I finally put (air)brush to paint last weekend.

I don't really want a new Marine army, if 'm honest, but that fact it's models/units I never currently use, an entirely different paint scheme and I have 10 DV Termies already, along with a bunch of old bikes, is about as much justification as I need.

I gave these guys a quick blast with Vallejo Radome Tan, then just quickly airbrushed a wash of brown over them. This is also a good project for me learning more techniques with this tool.

Next up is purchases. I want to run a 10 man squad of shooty, a 5 man of hitty blokes, 5 Knights and a mixed Command Squad. I though three boxes would cover this, added to the 10 DV models I will already have.

I then started thinking about all the bits in those kits, the duplicates of the standard Termie in the DV models and a couple of other things. In the end I planned it out in what can only really be described as a complicated mess:

You win 1,000 points if it is understandable to you...

Anyway, he good thing from that is that I actually only need two boxes of Deathwing. I'll probably go for a single box of the new Ravenwing in that case - I have about 6 bikes between my bit boxes so already have enough for a detachment.

Add to this order a good ol' Land Raider (will be my first EVER one) and, of course, Belial and I'll be good to go. Turn around on these needs to be pretty speedy. In future they'll mainly be used for ally detachments and Apoc Angels of Death lists.

Beyond that it's almost time for the Eldar to take centre stage in my world!

From The Chopping Board - Articulating a Dreadnought: Build Finished

Two posts below this, there's the first half of this article, so go read that first if you like (and haven't already).

Done that? Right, let's crack on...

Christmas Hobby Drought = Over

Hey!

Remember this blog? No? Oh.

I've been very quiet this last month since my Dreadnought post at the start of December. In 'real life' I manage a clothes section of a department store: we had sale early, were open long hours...you know the drill. Retail work + Xmas = stress & no spare time.

Anyway, that's over now. This post was going to be part two of Dreadnought articulating, then I lost my phone, with the photos on. Going well 2013 ain't it??

So I need to back track what I can of that, though the model is now base coated so could be tricky. Here's what I have managed, mainly in the last week:

• Furioso Dreadnought conversion finished, base coated.
• Stormraven #3 converted and base coated.
• 6 Tac Marines kit bashed and base coated

These three things above should mean my army for Throne of Skulls in March is actually going to be on on time - miracle of miracles!

I also: 

• Watched 4 seasons of Sons of Anarchy in 3 days - I now want to be a biker.
• Spent too much money on the Kingdom Death and Imbrian Art kickstarters - both examples of some really beautiful models I'll be receiving over the course of the year, looking forward greatly to both.
• Am eagerly awaiting delivery of Sedition Wars in the next couple of days (shipped today) - YEEAAAHHH!!!
• Played a crazy Apoc game: 3,000 points per side + as many super heavies, flyers and gargants  we had to hand. I'm going to try and get some pics of this, but aside from the 7,000 points of 'normal' stuff we had 1 Gargant, 12 flyers and 8 or 9 Baneblade equivalent tanks. It was messy.

I also reached that point where I realised I need to sell some stuff - I have ~£125 worth of Dark Eldar sitting unused, and about 1,750 points of Orks that have never seen paint. eBay beckons them, then the money will be saved to wait for (hopefully) an Eldar release later in the year. It's very tempting to paint the Orks as they're almost entirely built. We'll see.

So, there you go. Expect normal (irregular) posting to resume over the next week or so when I can get some decent pics to try and show what I did with the Dread. In the mean time, hope you all had a bloody good Christmas and a happy New Year! Here's to 2013 :)

From The Chopping Board - Articulating a Dreadnought Part 1

Hey folks.

Regular service of chopping up things and making them a little different resumes! I've been a bit 'meh' about all my projects recently, having stared a cool Ork conversion (but not bothered to finish), purchased and built and Eldar War Wlaker (but not bothered to paint) and dabbled with a couple of small, insignificant projects. None have held my attention for more than a couple of days.

Then, last week, I played a 1,500pt game vs my friends new GK army. All went well (I won 14-1) but I took two Dread's, one being my old metal Furioso. The thing weighed a ton! It didn't come apart to fit in my army bag! It looks dated!

Something had to be done...

Oh my, oh my: Kingdom Death Kickstarter

Those of you who've read this blog before will have notice I'm quite a fan of the Kingdom Death range of miniatures. While often controversial (the Wet Nurse) I think their models and some of the bet cast, most originally imagined models out there. I now own four of their limited edition resins.

So imagine my excitement when I woke this morning to an email introducing their  Kickstarter campaign for new board game 'Monster'.

I will be backing this. My first thought though was "oh no, I can't afford it - I have to buy Christmas presents" but it's a relatively long 45 day campaign,meaning pledges aren't charged until New Year. Great news! Think I'll go in at $150 for the game and the Kickstarter exclusive mini, unfortunately the next step is $295 which I think is a little beyond my budget :(

Cant wait to see the stretch goals start falling and discover the extra goodies - especially as their $35,000 goal was pledged witin the first 24 hours! Head to the Kickstarter page to learn more