Build me an army worthy of Mordor!

Dear Internet, I haven't written in a long time. It's not you, it's me. Truth to be told there haven't been much to write about, but I though the new year would be a nice time to make an effort and restart the blog. We'll see how long it lasts this time, but at least I have something to write about right now. (I also painted something, skip to the end if you just want to see the pretty pictures.)

Just before the new year I met up with my fellow Scandinavian Lardies (or Lardie Penguins) Jocke, Koen and Thomas for our annual shits and giggles game. In a moment of hubris we decided to play Dux Gondorianum -- which is more or less just Dux Britanniarum with Lord of the Rings figures.

The forces of go.. evil I mean.

Dux Brit is a large dark age skirmish game from Too Fat Lardies which is quite brilliant if you fancy playing saxons vs romano-britons. Which is nice, I guess, but we don't have any of those kinds of miniatures or any connection to that bit of history. What we do have is a lot of Games Workshop's  Uruk Hai, Gondorians and Rohirrim. The biggest hordes of painted stuff belongs to Koen and Thomas as I sold most of my Uruks and Riders of Rohan to Thomas a while back. Still, I had a handful of painted Mordor Orcs and a bunch of Wargames Foundry viking archers that didn't look too out of place in a Rohan Army. For some reason I even had two Grishnak!

One of my Grishnaks leads the charge!

Kill Team Surprise

So I got a surprise package from the mailman yesterday.

I spent some time assembling the small ruins from the 'C' sprues while the video was uploading.

All the "small" ruins from the box.

There were three of these sprues, allowing you to make all of the above. In the box their are five more sprues of three different types allowing you to build higher ruins with full height walls.

Happy gaming!

The Plague Brethren

... or Stink bros?

I couldn't resist this "limited" boxed set with three more plague marines. I love the new plague marines, and despite knowing that a proper plastic boxed set is on the horizon, and despite having about 50 old and semi-old metal plague marines, these were a must buy. Prize-wise they are 25 quid (or 300 Swedish Krona) for three ordinary plastic figures which is a bit steep. But who cares, money will be worthless when the Trumpocalypse comes anyway.

They come in this snazzy box. Can I please have this as a giant poster, pretty please with sugar on top?

The first thing you see when you open the box is a booklet with the same illustration on.

There are actually two booklets. One is the designer's notes and the other is the building instructions.

...underneath the booklets is a flap that lifts up to reveal some art cards.

All feature art by John Blance, but none is actually of any of the models in this box.

Ok, a quick break here, I have to get something off my chest. I'm a big fan of John Blanche's visions and style, but some of his art is actually very bad. I like the plague marine and the pox walker on the art cards above, they are quite evocative and disturbing. If you look closer though, you realise John's method of colouring his art is just drawing some swathes of water colours in the general area he wants colour, hoping most of it will be inside the lines he drew. One is actually of Mortarion, the great Death Guard primarch, but you couldn't tell if the picture didn't have the caption. I stared at the picture for like five minutes without being able to tell where his head is. I suppose it's a case of the Emperor's new clothes syndrome, nobody dares criticise John Blanche at GW and just prints whatever he produces.

Back to the box though, are there actually any minis inside?

Bases and blisters

This blog post feels like it has been a thousand years in the making...

 A couple of days weeks months ago I reviewed the Age of Sigmar Hero Bases, and now the time has come to take a look at the Warhammer 40k Hero Bases. I bought them shortly after the AoS ones, now that the 8th edition of 40k is looming around the corner I was reminded about these bases and dug up the photos I took back then.

The first sprue with some large pieces on it. Is that a Leman Russ turret? (Yes it is...)

The second sprue also has a bunch of large stuff on it, although not as large as the first.

Unlike the AoS set there are no single piece bases in this set. There are also only eight bases compared to the eleven in the AoS set.

All your base are belong to... swine?

I was not much impressed by the scenic bases GW had released before christmas, but the hero bases recently released piqued my interest. As my FLGS was out of the 40k one I bought the Fantasy version to review.

(Note: the sprues are really the same size, some sort of trickery with the photographs have ensued.)

The first sprue. Some interesting stuff, lots of skulls.

Second sprue. The giant sarcophagus lid on the right was what drew my eye originally.

Life... and lots of things...

Hi gang.

First I'd like to apologize for my absence, it's been a long while since I wrote anything. This is because my personal life is going through some changes, and therefore my hobby time has been quite limited. When I have had some spare time I have used it for hobbying and to a some extent gaming, not writing on the blog.  Here, have a kitten as compensation.

Anyhoo, I'm still buying stuff in hope of better times to come. Here's what I have been up to, in no particular order.

Feeling Frosty

I suppose none of you lot has missed this new game called Frostgrave? Well, if you have it came out about a half a year ago from Northstar Military Figures in collaboration with Osprey.

The cover of the rulebook, (c) Osprey Games 2015

Frostgrave is set in an ancient city which was buried in a magical blizzard hundreds of years ago. The city has begun to thaw and you play a Wizard venturing inside the city in search of magical secrets and treasures. You compose a band of followers to accompany you and your apprentice into the city, where you clash with other wizards and the magical inhabitants and monsters already present in the city.

Trollololol :-)

Well, while thinking about Kings of War, reading the rulebook and fiddling with an online army generator, I remembered the goblins from the old Battle for Skull Pass box I bought in oh, 2006 or something... If I remembered correctly there would be a fair amount of gobboes in there. A quick google confirmed that yes indeed, there were over 60 goblins, ten spider riders and a troll in the box.

Lots of goodies back then. Sure, everything was monopose, but it was still a decent set of figures.

While the dwarf units are a bit uneven in size, the goblin units are the exact size of Kings of War Regiments. Even the picture on the back of the box puts all the heroes out by themselves like Kings of War instead of inside the units. It didn't take long to enter the units into the army builder and here's what I got:

• Sharpsticks (Goblin spears)
  Regiment(20) - 95 pts
  Regiment(20) - 95 pts
• Spitters (Goblin bows)
  Regiment(20) - 85 pts
• Fleabag Riders (spider riders)
  Troop(5) - 95 pts
  Troop(5) - 95 pts
• King (Goblin Big Boss) - 90 pts
• Wiz (Goblin Shaman) - 45 pts
• Troll Bruiser - 125 pts

A total of 725 points if I split the riders into two troops, which coincidentally is almost the recommended starting points in the KoW rulebook. Just add 25 points of magic items and I'm there.

Why I play historical games.

Wow, it's been a month since I last blogged, what's happened?

Well, I sort of ground to a halt on my ork project, not so much for lack of things to paint or inspiration, but simply the realisation that I'm throwing good money after bad product by a company that doesn't love it's customers. (Sort of like an abused spouse staying with the abusing partner.) That put a sour taste in my mouth and I have been playing lots of X-wing (the boardgame) and Castle Wolfenstein (the computer game) instead.

You see, it started with this guy:

A "failcast" ork Big Mek with Kustom Force Field.

Despite being released with the last version of the Codex, he's not in the new one. Or rather, this version is not legal according to the new codex. In order to take a Kustom Force Field, the Big Mek needs to upgrade to a set of Mega Armour.

And will thus look something like this:

The new Big Mek, although with a telly-porta.

Ok, I know I can play with my old model and I intend to, but bare with me and I will make a comparison. 

More orks for da Whaaaaagh!

Hi gang, been painting orks for a while. I got the StormClaw boxed set with more nobs and I used the left over bits and bodies to upgrade the mono-pose Assault on Black Reach nobs. As I normally do not paint anything yellow I decided to paint up the extra nobs as Bad Moons.

The left Nob is from Assault on Black Reach with a leftover Big Choppa, the right one is a regular Nob.

More pictures after the break.

Da Deff Skull Deff Dread Done!

As I said last week I have a bit of an ork craze now, glueing and painting orks like a mad boy. But painting loads of boyz gets dull very soon, even if you vary the paint scheme between the mobs. So I decided to tackle the Deff Dread I bought at the same time as the Codex.

Bought on release day, June 28th.

So that is one built, painted, based and varnished Deff Dread in little over a month, must be some kind of record for me.

Boooh!

 More pictures after the break.

It's not easy being green

Wow, has it been that long since the last post? My apologies, friends and fellow miniature geeks and nerds. I have been playing this fascinating new roleplaying game called life.

• I have visited relatives in Greece, lived through a throng of greek aunts that all wanted to compliment and congratulate me on my two well-behaved and exotic sons, especially the younger who almost looks greek, and experienced my cousin's daughter's orthodox christening, complete with chanting priests and professional serial photographers. (50 XP, tick skill check in Urban Survival and Greek Culture.)

• Been painting the house, yes in 1:1 scale, including riding up 7 meters in a skylift, without dropping any lumber or tools on anyone below, without succumbing to vertigo, and without driving the lift cage through the neighbour's bathroom window. (100 XP, tick skill check in Handicraft (Painting), Driving (heavy machinery) and downgrade Vertigo from Severe to Mild.)

Yeah, that too.

Hobby-wise I have been lying low, secretely amassing a horde of miniatures to be tossed onto the lead/resin/plastic-mountain. The release of Warhammer 40k 7th edition hasn't yet convinced me that I need to get back to that game, but the release of the new Ork Codex with accompanying miniatures did!  Here's some thoughts on the new codex.

You've got red on you.

I've been busy with all things life (work, kids, non-miniature related fun stuff and just plain boring stuff), but I have plodded along with the Caproni I started earlier. All the major sub-assemblies (wings, interior bits etc.) are done, but I have to paint the interior before assembling them. Curse the designer who put so many windows on the cursed airplane.

So when the Guild of Wargamers announced a Speed build with the theme Red I jumped at the chance of doing something different. I decided to paint up one of the Killa-kans I bought off a friend in a bright red sceheme.

"You've got red on you"

Hitting the G-spot

Time to show some other stuff I have been painting lately. By some random chance I have been painting things starting with a G, namely a gaggle of Goblins and Gloin the Dwarf for Lord of the Rings.

Grrr! Get back to your own movie!

Gloin is from the "Escape from Goblin Town" starter set while the Moria Goblin is from the previous starter set "The Mines of Moria", both by Games Workshop. It's essentially the same game although the Goblin Town naturally is inspired by the recent Hobbit movie. The rules are slightly updated and stats (although no points costs) are provided for models from previous editions of the game.

Buckets of excrement!

Hi gang!

Todays small post concerns a very amusing thing I noted when I was clipping out and glueing all the stuff from GW's The Hobbit: Escape from Goblin Town set.

The game in question. (Picture courtesy of Games Workshop.)

Since it might constitute a mild spoiler for the Hobbit movie premiering in about a week (I got tickets, yay!) I will put the rest behind the break. Click to find out more, if you dare!

I want it all

I have been diagnosed with RAD: Raging Aquisition Disorder or Gamer's Magpie Syndrome. It's sometimes unscientifically described as the "Oooh, shiny!"-weakness... Basically, what it means is that while I labour away, painstakingly painting three hundred and fourty-two greek spearmen in 10mm scale, I get seduced by something new... we all have it in a fashion, how else would you explain people who buy new phones every six months?

"Hallo? I would like to order a platoon of Tigers please. What do you mean I must build all the Panthers first?"

But I digress. What I was going to talk about is the various stuff that recently have caught my eye.

Lord of the Franchise

I doubt it has escaped anyone that there will be a bunch of new Lord of the Rings movies out soon; they are based on the Hobbit (and various appendices) and the first of three will be out this december.

Celebrating three more movies to annoy purists with!

Games Workshop has had a series of battle games out since the first movie came out ten years ago. Originally a skirmish game which has branched out into a proper large battle game as well if one is so inclined as to wanting to game large battles in Middle-Earth, and quite frankly, who isn't? The new movies promise to breath more life into the franchise and offers new possibilities for Games Workshop to further add to the vast figure collection. More money to lure away from unsuspecting youngsters and their parents, I hear you cry. More of badly designed figures released to an odd schedule, meaning that you never, ever, can field the exact army you want. More of always having to buy more figures to comply with ever-changing army lists, to counter the latest powerful figures released for the opposition, or to add to a unit that has had its minimum size suddenly increased.

Nasty little Hobbitsessss... changing my armylists... Gollum!!!

But it's not certain that this will happen. And even if it does, Games Workshop is hardly the worst of the bunch when it comes to squeezing the last penny out of its franchises.

Trukking!!!

Finished an ork Trukk for the speed build at the Wargamers' Guild. In a speed build everyone get a set time and a subject and everyone tries to finish whatever they think match the subject before the deadline.

So do you want to buy a used trukk?

This time we had two weeks to build and paint something on the subject of Trucks, so I figured this was an excellent opportunity to do the trukk I got in the Ork Battleforce I recently bought. I will let the pictures do most of the talking.

Ork Boyz Review

Any self-respecting Ork Warlord will tell you that you need lots of Boyz to take the fight to the enemy, so I ordered an Ork Battleforce box just in time before the GW price rize. The box contains two sets of Ork Boyz, an Ork Trukk and a set of three Ork bikers. The sets are identical to the ones sold in separate boxes, just bunched together, so there are no extra special or limited edition figures included, but you do save a couple of bucks by buying the Battleforce.

The contents of the boxed set. Photo from Games Workshop.

In this review I will concentrate on just the Ork Boyz however.

Foul Smelly Things...

My mate Thomas at the Learning By Doing blog got a bunch of Games Workshop Mordor Orcs in a figure swap which he then kindly donated to me for some strange reason. Not the person to turn down free figures I gladly accepted but without any real notion of what to do with them.

Taking the hobbits to Isengard? Well, not really since they serve the red eye.

(Please excuse the photos, they were taken outside with my mobile camera in glaring sunlight, and the green background played hell with the colours. In reality the colours are much duller.)