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Monday, October 10, 2011

Mini’s and Modelling Desks – This Month in Review

As a counter-part to the smaller articles that I’ve been publishing lately (not as many as I’d hoped, but some nonetheless), I’ve decided to run a monthly review as a means of bringing together all the progress that’s been made during the month.  While longer than the other articles that will be posted during the month, it won’t be a repeat of the articles that have come before it.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to provide some additional thoughts / experiences I’ve come across between the original articles and the monthly review.  Anyway, with the prelude out of the way, let’s dive right in. 

For the most part, September has been a pretty slow month for hobby-related projects.  With the release of Space Marine in early September and Gears of War 3 shortly after, I’ve spent a good chunk of time in front of my 360 rather than painting.  Understandably this has meant that I’m a little behind on some of the goals that I set for myself this month but no matter, it will all get done eventually.  Playing Space Marine has however, rekindled my love for 40K; prompting me to finish off some of the older projects I’ve had on the books for some time now (which is always good).  Ever since the 4th Edition Space Marine Codex came out that allowed you to create your own Space Marine Chapter, I’ve had approximately 30-odd Deathwatch Marines sitting on my display shelf undercoated and waiting to be painted.  As this may represent a significant portion of the entire Ordo Xenos’ warrior elite, it has come to my attention that the Imperium of Man may be better served if these noble warriors were out there blowing apart alien scum rather than on my painting desk waiting to have the Chrome Detailing finished on their armour. 

To this end, I’ve been working on expanding the small unit that I started painting a couple of years back; boosting their numbers to a strength that will make them a viable choice on the battlefield.  Originally the unit consisted of a Librarian and four battle brothers, all hailing from a different Chapter (including the Legion of the Damned and the Relictors), however I’m hoping to expand on this number, building up the force as a whole while also adding a couple of battle-brothers that have left the service of the Ordo Xenos and rejoined the Salamanders Chapter.  







On the Warhammer Fantasy frontier, my Khorne Warriors continue to come together as a unit, the Bronze Spray proving to be possibly the greatest painting advantage I have in my arsenal.  Unfortunately my interest in painting rank and file infantry is waning; like the desert Sheik of ages past who is losing interest is his latest concubine.  However like the Sheik’s supply of women, my interests are many and it should take little effort to find another favourite housed within my expansive hobby-harem.  Still until that interest has disappeared completely, I’ve managed to paint a couple of warriors between posts.  My total Chaos Warrior painting effort is included below.






I’ve been painting Marauders as well, using the GW base-coating brush to great effect.  Thus far I’ve managed to get all the base colours for the skin and leggings done for all my undercoated Marauders bar my unit filler which remains black for now.  Like the warriors, I’m struggling to get these guys finished as they’re just not grabbing my interest in any major way.  Hopefully it’s only a temporary problem and will pass in short order as I’m not keen on dragging out this unit.  No doubt I’ll force myself to paint them just so they’re done within the next month or so. 




The final item I’ve been working on for my Chaos Army is a new unit of Nurgle Warriors.  This was a unit that I’ve been toying with for a long time now, trying to decide how I wanted to build it while also struggling to make the unit competitive.  I’ve had my eye on a particular combination of magical items for a long time now and never had the opportunity to try it out. Midway through the month however, my gaming group held a 5000pt team game (2500 a player) which meant that I was able to give the unit a run.  For the most part, the Nurgle unit played only a small part in the battle, copping abuse from the Dwarven Grudge Throwers for a good portion of the game.  While the Mark of Nurgle (MoN) seems to do well when it comes to ballistic skill-based shooting, against war machines their 30 point mark means nothing.  That said I really like the magical items connected with the unit as I’m able to force toughness tests for everyone within base-to-base contact with both my Exalted Hero and the standard bearer of the unit.  Equipped with shields and Halberds, they seem to be capable of dealing a decent amount of damage to the enemies they get a hold of.

With the unit a success, all I need to do is build it.  I’m not a big fan of the bloated pustulous look that GW embraces for the stereotypical Nurgle worshipper.  Instead I’ve decided to build them as I normally would using Warrior and Marauder parts but paint them in such a way as to give a more tarnished / sickly look that will be applied to the skin and armour of the warriors.  With the look of the unit firmly fixed in my mind, I quickly got stuck in and built a couple of test models, using the Bestigor  After building 5, let it be said, that while not impossible, attempting to manipulate a kit without first knowing what the heck you’re up to really makes things difficult.  Out of the 5 built, I’m sure all but 1 will require some GS work to fill in gaps that have appeared between the arms and torsos.  Depending on how well these guys go, I may use the same theory when building my unit of Khorne Warriors with Halberds.




And that’s this month’s hobby progress!  With all the progress I’ve been making this month, it’s hard not to be encouraged to greater effort over the next month.  Perhaps I shall spend some time getting my Legion of Everblight painted.  If I’m honest, there’s not that much there to paint.  The minor warbeasts are to paint and the most effort will come from painting the Blighted Archers, ensuring I can get their armour and clothing right.  You can be sure I’ll let you know how I go.  But until then, here are my updated gaming stats:

Number of Warhammer Fantasy Units Completed: 6
Number of Warhammer 40K Units completed: 9
Number of Hordes Units Completed: 1
Number of Points painted this fortnight:  244. 

Catch you all later

Trev

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