Day: December 4, 2016

Weekend reflections

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these weekend reflections types of blogs, but I thought I’d just ramble for a bit about what’s been going on and what I’ve been up to of late, so sit back and enjoy some rambles!

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Forging ahead with #TheBeastArises

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First off, I finished book six in The Beast Arises series, Echoes of the Long War. This was a really good book, showing the Fists Exemplar and the renegade Iron Warriors working together to destroy the Ork menace infesting the world of Prax. The world is a fortress world of the Iron Warriors, but the marines discover the Orks are using it to provide food for their war effort (in the form of human chattel) and so initiate a hidden mechanism in the core of the planet to basically destroy it. Exterminatus is but a mere wipe down with a damp cloth compared with what the Iron Warriors are prepared to do to wipe out the xenos!

In addition, we have some pretty turbulent events taking place on Terra, as Chapter Master Koorland basically takes command of the High Council of Terra, which gives me tremendous hope for the next steps in the war against the greenskins! We also get more on the intrigue on Mars, as the net closes on the assassins placed there back in book two…

I have to say, I’m really impressed with how the series has been progressing, especially over the last couple of books. I was surprised by the inclusion of the Iron Warriors storyline, but as the books have progressed I’ve been finding myself interested in them more and more! In fact, I’ve since moved on to reading the Iron Warriors novel, Storm of Iron, by Graham McNeill! Back last year, I read the first two novels in the Ultramarines series, Nightbringer and Warriors of Ultramar. I know that the next novels have strong ties to the Iron Warriors stories, but hadn’t really looked into the reading order until recently. So wait for that review, coming soon!

Thousand Sons

On the subject of Warhammer 40k stuff, it’s been an exciting weekend for Chaos folks as we see the new releases of Tzeentchy goodness, including these rather magnificent Rubric Marines. I single these out, as I would like to get myself a box soon enough! I mentioned it a while ago that I wanted to build some up, perhaps for a kill team type of thing, but having many projects on the go right now, I’ve managed to resist… for now!

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Let's see what this is all about! #StarWars #games

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That hasn’t stopped me buying other games of course, including the new Star Wars Destiny dice game, and The Sands of Harad for Lord of the Rings! Destiny looks great – I bought both starter boxes and three boosters with the idea that I could try the game out with my buddy Tony, and maybe change up the starter decks if required. I’m disappointed I didn’t get Count Dooku, but from all accounts there appears to be a very small distribution of characters in the game, so I suppose I’m not overly surprised. My usual Magic singles webstore, Magic Madhouse, is selling stuff for the game singly, and I’m a bit surprised at the £6 cost for single cards with dice – but having paid £14 for a single Magic card in the past, I suppose I shouldn’t really be all that surprised… At any rate, I want to actually play the game a bit and get an opinion of it before I go too nuts…

The Sands of Harad looks fantastic, I must say. I talked about this a while ago, where I thought it might be the expansion that really gets me back into the game and, on first glance through, I think that assertion is correct! The artwork is beautiful as always, and has gotten me excited to get back into playing the game. Christmas is only around the corner, of course, and it’s a time of year that I do associate with both the game and the setting, so I’m very excited for this! I’m still featuring the various cycles in game day blogs in the order of their release, but I might be talking about this one more in the near future, so stay tuned for that!

I’ve still got the Arkham Horror LCG waiting to be investigated (pun intended, I think) though I’m not yet in the mood for that one… think it might have to be one of these games where you devote an afternoon to the whole experience of it, you know? Between the deckbuilding and learning the game itself, I’m actually looking forward to it! But, much like my painting, it seems whenever I spend more than an hour doing things these days, I feel like I’m wasting time! Not sure what that’s all about… But at any rate, I plan to set aside some time when I’m next off work (and have no essays due!) so that I can go through it all – and will no doubt be reporting back here in a game day blog soon enough, so stay tuned for that, as well!

I’m ashamed to say that I’ve not really been keeping up with a lot of the new games lately – though I haven’t really seen anything that I can say I’m really super-excited for. I’ve not bought any of the Flashpoint cycle for Netrunner, and the next cyle, Red Sand, has already started the announcements! I haven’t played the game in months though, so should probably look to getting back into that. It seems a lot like Warhammer things have taken over my life the last few months – which I’ve been enjoying, don’t get me wrong! I just think that I’ve been missing out on some other really great games, and it might be time to make a return to some of those…

Hobby Progress, week 48

The end of the year draws closer! Initially, I hadn’t thought I’d made as much progress with my painting this week – I’ve been suffering with man-flu, and have an essay due on 8 December so have been trying to catch up with my degree work, and just hadn’t thought the time had been there. But in checking out last week’s progress update blog, it turns out I actually have made some forward motion! Let’s dive right in…

hobby progress 48

Always afflicted with a bit of hobby-ADD, and while it can often lead to having a morass of unfinished projects on the go, it also seems to have served me well this week, as I’ve made a lot of progress on some of these things! I’ve been painting up the Necron Wraiths following my last game of 40k, as they do pretty well and I want them finished, rather than two part-done and two merely undercoated. So I’ve been powering through with those, and they’re inching closer to done, I feel! Having the gold on the palette just to do the heads meant that I could get on with painting up the four Liberators that I’d originally built for my Armies on Parade entry, but didn’t get round to painting in time – so they’ve been basecoated and shaded, and are a sort of mini-project that I expect will be done when they’re done…

After a lot of wrangling, I think the Deathwatch Librarian is now done, as well. I’m not particularly pleased with how a lot of him has turned out, but I think he’s as good as I’m going to get him now…

hobby progress 48

The Deathwing Knights are slowly progressing, much like the Stormcast! I’ve been trying to find a way of highlighting the green robes without making them too bright, and have discovered the joy of Kabalite Green! It doesn’t really look right in the pot, but over three or four coats (whatever it was in the end) of Caliban Green, it’s really done the job for me. In fact, it looks good enough that I think Warpstone Glow as a final highlight might be enough, rather than going straight from Caliban to Warpstone. So I’m really pleased there!

hobby progress 48

Remember these girls? I made a joke on instagram how they’d aged so badly in the time waiting for paint, which really makes me chuckle I have to say! But anyway, since they last made it to the pages of my blog, I’ve gone over the skin with Warpfiend Grey, and I think I might actually leave it there, but I’m also thinking I might do a final highlight of Slaanesh Grey before calling it done. In the meantime, I’ve painted the hair Celestra Grey in preparation for shading it blue. Remember my Ogres? The idea is the same, purple skin and blue hair:

I mean, it makes sense to me! I also think it looks cool, and could make the Daemonettes really look great. I’m still vacillating over the corset things they’re wearing, but I think I will end up doing them black rather than metallic, and highlight them with Dark Reaper like the Deathwatch armour I’ve been doing, as I think it will keep them looking quite harmonious, keeping them on the blue end of the spectrum. We’ll see!

What else has been going on?

My local GW Horus Heresy thing now has a name: Strokes of Heresy. I believe it’s meant to sound kinda wrong, but basically it’s a painting competition campaign, where each month a challenge is set – paint a troops choice, paint an HQ choice – and you get points at the end of the month based on whether you’ve built, painted and based the unit. There are additional points on offer if you fully paint any additional units, and if you build and paint the maximum unit size for the month, for instance, and all of this then goes onto a campaign map. You roll dice to gain territory, which then gives you additional challenges for that month, ranging from using an unspecified texture paint to converting and painting a Remembrancer. So for November, it was a troops choice, which I’d finished off mid-month along with a rhino, so I’ve got 4 points right off the bat! Unfortunately, the man-flu has kept me away from being able to roll off for this additional challenge yet, but anyway. This month, it’s an HQ choice, so I’ve gone for a Legion Centurion, keeping things simple, but I’ve also been thinking about doing a tactical support squad for a while, so have also built them up! Exciting times inbound!

My Alpha Legion is growing quite well now, I have to say, and I’m really pleased with how much progress has been made with the Betrayal at Calth box this year. I suppose it’s inevitable at this time of year to be looking back at this stuff, but considering I’d built up the Chaplain, terminators and dreadnought in January, then did nothing with it for months, once this tactical support squad is finished I will have painted up all thirty of the marines, as well! (I’ve actually bought three more sets of marines off ebay, as I don’t want to buy another Calth box just for them, so there are still plenty more marines to make before I venture wholly into Forgeworld territory!)

Next up, I definitely want to do a second troops choice of another tactical unit, which will finally get me the required minimum for a combined arms detachment that I can then start to play some games with. As usual, I have too many fancy units and not enough basic guys! I think I’ll also want to do another rhino to move them around in, but if I’m being honest, this will probably be something for next year, now…

hobby progress 48

Finally, I wanted to show off my Novamarines to date! These guys excite me quite a great deal, I have to say! I’d painted the quartering onto both veteran sergeants earlier in the week, using Alaitoc Blue, and I think it looks pretty great. Unfortunately, I cleared my dining table (where I do all of my painting) on Saturday and forgot which blue I’d been using for them so, when I came to paint up the remaining four assault marines later on in the day, I used Hoeth Blue, which is the next shade lighter, and am kinda gutted about the whole situation! Novamarines are cobalt blue, which is nearer Alaitoc than Hoeth (to my eye, at least), so I’m going to have to go over the four rather than the two! The good thing, hopefully, is that it probably won’t need three coats to block it in on the lighter marines…

Novamarines

I’ve also gone through and lined the armour recesses on the cream parts with Seraphim Sepia, overbrushing with Flayed One Flesh to bring the flat panels back up, and I think it looks pretty great overall! So they’re definitely coming along now!

I’ve still got the four tactical marines to basecoat and stuff, but I am feeling really pleased with the progress on these chaps – I’m already further along than I got last time I’d attempted this chapter! I’m now thinking about what I want to do next, and I think I want to kitbash a fancy HQ choice. Flicking through the codex, you can upgrade a captain to a Chapter Master, which just sounds wonderful, so I’m thinking I might do that! I’ve got one or two bits in mind already, so I just need to figure out the weapon options, and then get building! For this next stage, I want to do a second troops choice so that I can have some measure of legal force with which to hopefully play some games, rather than always going for the fancy options and never having a proper CAD done! So stay tuned for that!