Army Challenge Part 1

As was stated earlier in this blog.....can't remember where but it is there.....I was challenged by my brother to produce an allied army. This lead to both of us producing a 500pt force as an allied faction to each others mains. Since I was Skaven, I decided to do Empire (Cause I love a Celestial Wizard theme force). My Bro on the other hand was High Elves, so he decided to do Chaos Daemons.....or more specifically, Khorne. Now things have grown with a few changes. We decided to go from 500pts to 750pts as it would allow my Bro to use Skulltaker and would let me add a Celestial Hurricanum to my force (will put up the list soon).

So, here's whats been completed so far:

Great Cannon:

This was the first unit I painted and though some of the parts were damaged when I opened the box, it still went together well enough. The first thing that stands out is their clothing. I wanted this army to be a sort of local militia for their ruling lord, a Celestial Wizard Lord, and so chose colours that suited that scheme yet stood out in the same way all Empire uniforms do.....lousy (The sons of Sigmar never did have fashion sense). Hawk Turquoise and Hormagaunt Purple were the founding colours with Blue wash to connect them. Vests were givin a Brown/Orange mix to contrast the blend. With the new paints, I plan to use Temple Guard Blue and Genestealer Purple as highlights and see if a Blue wash and/or a Blue Glaze is better. Will test these out when I paint up the Halberdier unit.

Handgunners:

These guys were so annoying to paint. Seriously, give me a Skaven horde anyday. I'm still not sure about the hats and feathers, but I am pleased about the bases. The bases themselves consist of cork tile shredded into smaller bits and placed on to look like a rocky ledge with sand flock to fill in the gaps. Snow was simply Bi-Carb soda mixed with PVA glue and dabbed on in spots with snow flock put over in. A few patches of grass flock gives it that final touch.

Finally......

Monkey or Chameleon???

ANZAC Day 2012

Just got back from my local dawn service and I have to say, that was the best one yet. For those of you who don't know, ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps and on April 25th we come together to honour our soldiers (both past and present) and to commemorate those who made the ultimate sacrifice.

This years service was very inspirational, with stories of some local heroes from past wars that truly show the Australian spirit and fills me with national pride. It's good to know that each year seems to bring more people to these services, though it's still a shame that some of the younger generations (man that makes me sound old) still lack any pride or respect when it comes to these things. To clarify, I'm no fan of the current war. Infact, I was against the who Iraq thing from the beginning, but regardless of what stupid decisions the Australian government makes I will still support and respect the troops that are sent into these unpopular positions.

Lest We Forget.

Luthor Huss Short Review

I prefer my Warhammer novels with Skaven or atleast focused on a non-human theme, yet I found this book had me reading to the end (in my spare time of course). Being a big fan of the Mathias Thulmann series, it had changed my overall view of Witch Hunters. As such, this book has changed my overall view of Warrior Priests.

The story revolves around two characters. The first (and most obvious) is that of Luthor Huss, who travels from village to village in the Drakwald Forest in his fight against the growing number of undead. Occasionally a chapter or two gives flashbacks into Luthor's past and gives the reader more understanding of Huss as a man as the story progresses. The second character is the Witch Hunter Lukas Eichmann, who's hunt for heretics in Middenheim leads him to Drakwald and on a path to Huss. While Eichmann's story is a good one, it's Huss and the people he meet's that shapes the story and ultimately leads to the true villain who is behind the entire event.

I enjoyed the book, finding myself being drawn in as I try to figure out who exactly is Luthor Huss. A must for any Empire fan, but I recommend it to any Warhammer fan (or even if your not one).

Supanova Gold Coast 2012

Well the day is over and the mission completed. Certainly I found this much better then last years one, though standing in the sun for over an hour as we lined up to get inside wasn't the most thrilling experience.

Crowds were big and the convention center packed, so movement was more like a waddle then a walk. Didn't find much for myself, but my Bro did purchase himself an Assassin's Blade. Costumes were a plenty, but since I'm not a big Anime fan trying to guess who they were wasn't working out for me. Still, they did have it all (Mostly).

Plenty of Star Wars.  That alien-wolf head with moving mouth was sweet. Plenty of Stormtroopers walking around raising money for a children's charity.

The Borg....

Knights who say Ni???

Here was something I thought I'd never see. If you saw the previous entry, I found that vid about a month back. Never did I think I'd run into a couple of martians and yet there they were. Yep yep yep yep...


Most costumes consisted of Soldier's (probably because or the MW/CoD games out there), Assassin's (Assassin Creed series) and Star Wars troopers n jedi.....So it's surprising nobody got killed. The only gripes I had was that still the location was too small for all that was compacted in and that still Queensland has little in the way of stores compared to those of New South Wales and Victoria. Still, they have until around November to come up with improvements for Supanova Brisbane 2012.

Best Cosplay Ever Vid

I never thought I'd see these two as a costume set..........that was until...well, see the Supanova report.

Prey 2 NOT Cancelled

HELLZ YEAH!!! The developer just announced that the game has not been cancelled, but simply delayed due to slow progress and the fact they ain't happy with the product in it's current form. It's understandable as alot of games these days are rushed or simply poor quality. As far as I'm concerned, I'd rather wait for an great game then a rushed game.

Supanova Gold Coast

This Saturday I'm off to the Supanova Pop Culture Expo on the Gold Coast. What will I see and will it be any good (Considering the disaster that was Supanova Brisbane last year), we'll find out soon enough.

Local Painting Comp

With the introduction of Games-Workshops new paints (yes, I know I did grumble about the name changes, but these paints a somewhat better then the last ones), all stores are holding a painting competition. There will be three catagories:

-Single Mini
-Unit
-Battalion

Obviously Battalion is out of the question for me, but I will try to get entries in the other two. I do have Empire State Troops for a Unit entry, but my first focus is on Single mini in the form of an Empire Gold Wizard. The wizard lord body from the Celestial Hurricanum is an excellent start with some parts from the battle wizard kit and of course an Iron Hawk familiar should top it all off. Sounds like fun. 

Celestial Plasticanum

Got me a Celestial Hurricanum and the only thing that annoys me about is is the crap framing on it. Trying to cut the pieces from the frame shows poor design as some of the more thinner parts just snap in half. Out off all the frames I've cut, only these frames have had this problem.

Still, a little glue n touch up should sort this out.........hopefully.

Another Bronies Video

Make sure you activate captions to get English subtitles. A small look into the minds of a few Bronies.

Age of Empires Online

So I decided to play a little Age of Empires Online and I gotta say, it ain't half bad. I chose Celt's as my civilization and am enjoying it so far. Admittedly, you do need to purchase a premium pack for the full experience, but considering I'm only level 9 so far, I'm not in a major rush. 

Derpy/Ditzy Vids

If this doesn't bring a tear to your eye I don't know what will.

In all seriousness, I love this character and nothing really shows how good this character can be then PierceSmoulder's channel. The Doctor Whooves and Assistant episodes are nicely done and the first episode has even been animated by others.

As of yet, I have no idea if Dinky will appear in the series, but I can only hope she can be added in (that and a little romance between Ditzy and the Doctor), but meh...that's just me.

Skryre Skaven Warlord

He only needs a few touch ups to some green stuff parts, but this little ripper is finally finished (as far as converting goes anyway).

I had originally intended for him to be on a warlitter, but this Bonebreaker option was one that had constantly plagued me.

The weapon is one that I have been wanting to make since they released the 8th Edition warhammer book as it's artwork clearly shows a Skaven made chainsword. That's right, Skaven weaponry is almost on-par with 40k weapons (with the exception that it has about 50/50 chance to blow it's wielder up). The pole is a Stormvermin weapon with it's blade replaced by a chaos chainsword. I did attempt to copy the spike design, but unfortunately it proved to irritating at the time.

A variety of parts were used for this conversion, the most obvious being the body of a Khorne Juggernaut and the head, tail and feet of the Necromunda 'The Caller' rat beast. Being of Clan Ektrik, there are some electrical prods n outlets (along with lightning features) on him for a real shock. Liquid warp-fuel injectors add that mad science touch to it.

Overall, I'm happy with the way this conversion turned out. Can't wait to start painting this guy.

Easter

It was bound to happen.

What happened?

Again, another period of time without an update. Alas, it seems Australian laws don't really protect you against violent neighbours and have been helping my family with their moving and cleaning and so as such have had little time to work on much else.

That said, my halt on the Empire project my have come to an end with the new Empire rules. But that's not whats got me, oh no. The reason is that fantastic model, the Celestial Hurricanum. As a fan of both Lore of the Heavens and techno-sorcery, this model is just a must have for my collection.