Batman Update - On the Case (Pt 1)

Hey all!  After spending quite a bit of time focussing on RL stuff, I’ve finally gotten some time to sit down and compose my thoughts regarding some of the progress I’ve made on one of my (many) BMG projects I have currently going on.  Of the many irons I have in the fire, the first one I wanted to cover was my attempts at creating viable alternatives for storing and transporting BMG miniatures.  

BMG Update - Welcome to Foamcordia

There's little doubt in my mind these days of the importance terrain plays in a miniature wargame.  As I've written previously, I feel terrain is an essential element in the creation of a universe which allows players to maximise their enjoyment of the game and lose themselves for an hour or three (if not longer!!).  After spending a considerable amount of money on miniatures recently, I came to the realisation the desire to forego allocating funding for terrain and choosing to rely on the collection of 40K terrain at my disposal wasn't going to butter the parsnips for much longer.  While it gave us a varied and quasi-flexible board, it just wasn't Gotham.  I knew that I'd be buying a large collection of MDF terrain, but that wouldn't be for a while so I needed something to stand in for the meantime.  What the hell was I going to use???

Batman Update: The Masked Man

There are few villains that have inspired me more-so than Bane.  It seems that the more I learn about him, the more I am inspired by him hobby-wise.  When I initially ordered by League of Shadows game, the Tom Hardy Bane was my immediate next purchase before also settling on ordering Talia to complete the happy family.  Without a doubt, Bane was my favourite villain our of the Christopher Nolan series and having the opportunity to field him in game is an absolute treat.

Batman Update: Crikey!! Killer Croc Emerges

Pic done by the very talented grimbro over at Deviantart.  

The other week I found an offer on one of the various Facebook Buy / Swap / Sell groups that specialise in Batman Minis.  Specifically it was for Killer Croc who was NIB.  Eager to see how the big lug would go in my band, I went over to Bat-Builder to see if they had any articles specifically related to his use in game.  Lo and behold, the good people over at Critskillpeople have done just that.  After completing the article I promptly inquired about the model.  A few messages later, Killer Croc was in the mail, hurtling towards by location at the speed of a starving croc descending on some unsuspecting prey at a watering hole (or at least as fast as Auspost could manage).  Upon arrival I was greeted with the wonderful sight of a vastly oversized blister pack containing the reptilian thug nestled safely inside.

Batman Update: Bringing Colour to the Shadows

Stolen from dribble.com

In what seems to be a mass-burst of hobby mojo, I've started painting my League of Shadows gang and have been pleasantly startled at the speed that they're coming together.  The initial hesitation I'd normally feel when I approach a new painting project is nowhere to be seen which has meant I've been able to dive in with both feet.  I'm not sure what has allowed me to put aside these hesitations, but I'm not going to question its absence right now; a gift horse scenario to be sure.  Perhaps I've just been inspired by Shia LaBeouf

Batman Update: Raising Gotham

With my efforts in painting miniatures bearing considerable fruit, it was time to get started on building an actual gaming table to play on.  BMG runs an unusual table size (at least unusual for me) of 90cm x 90cm which is a bit of a departure from the old 4’ x 4’ table I’m used to playing on with GW games or Wrath of Kings.  Armed with this knowledge, I set out designing a gaming table that would allow me to bring Gotham City to life...

Batman Update: A League of our own

Stolen from http://www.hdwallpapersimages.com/

With the local enthusiasm for Batman at an all time high, I wanted to organise an event for the local gamers to encourage them to get involved and immerse themselves in the hobby.  The aim of this was two-fold – to encourage those sitting on the fence to jump in and have a go and to assist those participating in the event to build their armies and learn how to play the game.  The question remained however, what was the best way to help everyone get involved?  The answer was simple – organise an escalation league for the local club.  League are one of those wonderfully engaging events that combine the best part of all the aspects of the hobby and smashes them together to create something truly magical.  Unfortunately Knight Models does not currently possess a readily available league pack so I needed to make my own (roughly translated: I stole a bunch of ideas much more creative than I and moulded them to fit the BMG system. 

Batman Update - Joining the League

Once the past week I've been determined to build all the models I have for my League of Shadows gang so I can start playing some practice games in against the upstart Joker Gang being run by Nathan.  With the almost limitless opportunity for narrative play, I have no doubt that these early games will be the beginning of a long-running campaign for control of Gotham's seedy underbelly.  With that in mind, the more resources I have at my disposal, the likelier it is that the League will be able to establish a beach-head / power-base.

Hobby Update - A Quick Trip to Gotham

Sometimes there are games that sweep you up and spirit you away and before you fully realise  what's going on, you've bought an army and am planning a table to go with it.  This was my reality two weeks ago when I was talking to my mate Nathan about the Batman Miniatures Game.  In a space of 12 hours after the discussion he'd visited the site, perused the miniatures range and downloaded the rulebook.  In the process he'd also convinced me to download and browse the rulebook for myself as well as join a couple of Facebook groups related to the game.

#TerrainTuesday – The House that Trev built 2nd Edition (pt 1)

As a means of raising a bit of extra cash, I’ve recently started to build terrain that will be going up for sale on eBay in the near future.  For the most part, the type of terrain up for sale will vary between Fantasy and Sci-Fi, but to start with, I embraced the skills developed from previous endeavours and began my own housing development. 

WoC Update - Let your freak flag fly (WiP)

After choosing Nurgle as my glorious patron for the upcoming tournament, I sat down and decided to at least finish painting the Standard Bearer for my warriors unit.  After sitting in my army case for several years now, I felt I could at least make an effort to get them painted.  With the musician already done and the Champion well on the way to completion, getting a fully painted command group seemed like a reasonable goal to have.  Besides, they would look totally awesome once they were completed.

WoC Update - Ridden Hard and put away wet

So it turns out that the Centaur idea I was toying around with the other week has taken on a life of it's own, resulting in a pair of the humanoid-quadrupeds being assembled.  Hopefully this will add to the fluff surrounding the unit, acting as scouts and messengers for the huntsmen, whilst also working to flush out the bigger critters so that Bessie can do his thing.  In gameplay terms, these models will act as mini-fillers, taking the place of two individual warriors each.  The creation of a viable (some might say breeding) pair of mini-fillers will mirror the effect I've attempted to produce in my other units of chaos warriors.  Of all my conversion projects, this one has to be the most complicated that I've ever attempted.  The real skill of course, is making it look good...

WoC Update - Touched (inappropriately) by Nurgle

With the imminent demise of 8th Edition (and the Old World, but we don't like to talk about that one...), my local gaming group has decided to hold a Farewell Tournament for 8th Edition in May.  As soon as I heard about the tourney I had two choices - take a fully painted Tzeentch list or try out an army list that is totally different and would have absolutely no chance I getting painted in time.  Guess which route I took?  As a result, I've taken the opportunity to put some paint on my Nurgle units to see if I can't make at least some progress on what has turned out to be a stalled army project.

Salamander Update: Legion Praetor Deployed

 When I first started playing Heresy-Era games, it quickly became apparent to me just how awesome the Legion Praetors were; particularly for the 18^th Legion.  Clad in Artificer Armour and with access to some of the more esoteric entries in the Legio Armoury, they could be tailored to do any duty you required – from the basic linesman to the full-blown juggernought.  With the right combination of gear, there is little that a Praetor fears on the battlefield (and that’s before you even begin looking at the ‘Rites of War’ they offer).

#TerrainTuesday - Speed Painting Terrain

As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve been working on a number of terrain projects that fir the ad-hoc theme I started when I created the bus-stop piece a while back.  These pieces have combined GW Cities of Death terrain with more mundane items salvaged from various sources to create something that is (hopefully) cool to look at and interact with.  All too often I’ve wondered at the modelling potential that could arise from combining the two and now I’m getting the chance to experience it first hand. 

Hobby Update – Restanding the Triple Helix Project

With the recent sale of my Legion of Everblight, I’ve been considering a number of different gaming systems that might act as a suitable replacement for the third ‘strand’ of my triple helix project and after jumping between a multitude of different gaming systems (including, but not limited to Helldorado, Wild West Exodus, and Bushido), one seemingly fell into my lap after a Kickstarter I funded about 2 years ago arrived....

Salamander Update – Size Matters

 For those who spent the end of last year either under a rock or were subjected to an inhumanly long time without internet, you missed out on one of the most ground-breaking and monumental releases of 2014 – The Blood Angels Codex.  This release was signficiant not just because of the sweet new kits or the new ways to be Billy-Badass with your space vampires, but because of a specific change to the very core of how we play with our Space Marines – the introduction of the 32mm infantry base.  The resultant internet hysteria fuelled the ‘base-gate’ scandal – a vertiable shit-storm of whinging and steadfast declarations of “how dare they!” “My army is useless now!!” and my personal favourite “Gee Dubs can’t make me change my bases!! I won’t! I won’t! I won’t!!!”  Despite the rapid deployment of ignorance, many people took a more temperate approach to the subject, carefully considering what was right for them before embracing the new base size for Marines and using then in new projects or in some cases revamping existing projects.  I was one of the latter...

Salamander Update – Into the Breach(ers)!

As part of my ever-expanding collection of conversion pieces and specialist kit, I purchased a set of boarding shields a year or three back, intent on creating a unit of Boarding Marines as described in Imperial Armour Volume 9.  With my Heresy project picking up dangerous levels of speed, I decided to finally use the boarding shields in my collection and combine them with a unit of 10 Marines in Mk4 armour to create a Legion Breacher Shield Squad that looks pretty sweet despite the distinct lack of Mk3 awesomeness. 

#TerrainTuesday – Bus Stop Short Stop Complete!

It seems that for me, 2015 is about getting partially completed projects done and maximising the organisation of my gaming space.  To this end, I’ve been spending quite a bit of time revisiting old projects and working to get each one finished before moving onto the next one in a flurry of paint cans and weathering powders.  As a result, I’ve not only finished the bust stop, but I’ve also managed to complete several more besides.  Those others are for later though.  Right now it’s all about the Bus Stop

Gene Therapy - Leaving the Legion

When I first created this blog, it was designed to be a collection of articles that allowed me to share my progress across three game systems - Warhammer Fantasy, Warhammer 40k and Hordes (specifically Legion of Everblight).  Since that time, much has occurred and I no longer play games with my Legion of Everblight models my enthusiasm for the game has significantly waned to the point of non-relevance.  I held onto the minis though, not because I had any illusions of playing again, but because selling them off went against my hoarding mentality.  All things must change however and recently I felt it was time to move on from the game completely, allowing me to explore other avenues.  

Salamanders Update - Accessories are your friend!! (a sequel)

Hey-ho all, just a short article today (though short is a relative term at this blog) about a line of 3rd party bits that I've found to be really useful while working on my Salamanders.  While there are two distinct companies I'm using at the moment, I thought I'd just focus on one for starters.

Salamander Update - First Heresy Marines done

Hey howdy all! I'm back again, though at this point, it's kinda getting to be a somewhat regular occurrence.  Perhaps this is a positive sign for things to come?  Let's hope so, because at this stage, I've got some painting progress to show you and I've got to admit I'm quite proud of my efforts.  Since I previously mentioned my initial foray into painting pre-heresy Salamanders, I've made quite a bit of progress (at least for me) in addition to learning a new technique or two to boot. When planning out this Heresy project, I wanted to do something a little different than my standard 'clean marines' I've produced in the past.  Inspired by the works over at 'A Galaxy In Flames', I decided that this time around I was going to try for something a little more gritty; something that would take me beyond my comfort zone and improve my painting skills in the process.

Campaign Update - The Desolation of Epsilon 19 continues

Pic blatantly thieved from the good people of Chimera Nottingham
http://chimeraccg.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/warhammer-40k-campaign-tuesdays-ripley.html

As I briefly mentioned in the last article, I started a small 40K campaign during December last year called the Desolation of Epsilon 19.  While I have run a number of campaigns in the past revolving around the Vogen campaign pack that was released by Games Workshop sometime last century (I've never fully realised just how much fun it is to say that until now) centred around a map-based campaign for control of a major hive city.  The first of a series of articles relating to this campaign can be found here.  This time around however, I wanted something that would allow for more freedom for players, allowing them to play or not at their leisure without the worry of letting their team down.  This time it was to be a free-for-all as everyone desperately scrambles to claim controlling interest over the planet Epsilon 19.

Hobby Update - Mandatory New Year's post incoming

So as I sit here, I'm perusing my blog feed, catching up on the adventures and progression of a myraid of projects / undertakings from a vast swathe of gamers, painters and all-round awesome people and in the process I'm reading my fair share of 'New Year' posts and as a result I'm feeling inspired to improve my own offerings to the peoples of the Internet after a pretty dismal effort during 2014.  Last year was a travesty solely due to a lack of drive on my part to actually sit down and transform my poorly-written notes into something legible and when I did, I never found the time to take the pictures necessary to make the article more like something that has the potential for entertainment and not some giant wall of text (think I failed on that one anyway, but hey-ho, that's just the way it is I guess).  But that's what these types of articles are for really - granting everyone a clean slate, a fresh opportunity to transcribe a more positive future for oneself.

Hobby Update - Let the Heresy Commence!

During this past year I've been making a start on a new project - a Horus Heresy Era army. Now, when I say make a start, I really mean that I've read a whole bunch of unit breakdowns, all three HH Rulebooks and a swathe of Heresy fiction produced by the amazing authors of Black Library. On top of this, I've been trolling EBay for bargains and I have to say, I've not been disappointed. Much resin crack has been purchased for this project and now awaits the gentle caress of my paintbrush to bring it to life. As another exciting development, I've finally found a purpose for a number of models that have been sitting around in drawers collecting dust that I was struggling to get into my standard 40k army. The biggest question left to answer was - which Legion was I going to collect?