Cypher, Advent Calendar and The Fallen

As Games Workshop announced the festivity treat of the Advent Calendar - rumours are abound the Internet of the coming of old characters, one of my personal favourites - Cypher.

In it's fairly well done (IMHO) but very obvious spoiler, here's the GW video:

When Dark Vengeance hit, the first thing I did was to convert the DA Librarian to a counts as Cypher, I couldn't use him, but damn - the model looked cool and I'd have it anyway.

Here's a snap of the WIP - I plan to go to town on this one, including tidying up the armour and making it look like an older suit, complete with studs and much more detailing to the sword behind.  I'm thinking of adding chains and green stuffing some more details.

To go with him, I have a lot of the DV Dark Angels to shave and tidy up, then make them more ancient and heresy era with studs and green stuff.  I can then play them as either pre-heresy Dark Angels or Fallen Angels in my Black Legion force.  Win/Win!  

What do you guys think?

Some WIP stuff!

Inquisitor Hellyos

First up is an old model I created when Daemon Hunters was released... yeah... a long time ago!  I really liked the idea of a book worm inquisitor with a large pistol.  This guy is pretty basic, but in mind fits the role nicely.


Not too bad for a model I painted a few years ago!

Brother Armond

Now we move onto a recent WIP of mine, a Deathwing Leader painted up as a commission piece in the colours requested.  I still need to add a layer to the whites and blues, then tidy up the whole armour.  Then I will crack on with the sword - possibly painting it up in brown and bone effect, to create a nice relic blade.

Traitor Lord Commissar 

My real passion though is my Black Legion, which has just taken on a whole raft of new recruits from a defeated Imperial Guard force.  They are now traitors, and this chap will be my Traitor Lord Commissar - even they can fall from grace... This one has suffered some minor mutations that mark him out for greatness!  I wanted to kit bash an old Vampire I laying around, this fit perfectly.  Cadian legs, bit of green stuff and hey presto... fairly "smart" uniform to denote his previous rank and bits to tie him to my Black Legion and he on his way.  Just need to tidy the clothes up a little on the green stuff, but this will be done soon.  

Counts as Typhus of the Black Legion

I realised I never actually posted much about the Typhus scratch build I did awhile back.

After reading the Black Legion supplement, I decided to set about re-creating the Mournival but with Abaddons Chosen, starting with the Slaughterborn...

Tyhpus rules fit nicely, and allows me to just get running with a powerful model.

Here is a WIP through to painted guide of what I did.

I took the standard model of Typhus and cut into it, removing the torso (the metal one! not the finecast one).  When I had the legs free, I then cut into Archaon (Warhammer) and trimmed his cloak, bent it down and added a bit GS to tidy it up.  I grabbed the Ork head from an Armageddon Steel Legion Sgt, and built the scythe from the Warhammer Nurgle lord and plasticard.  Guitar wire was the used to provide pipes as above, then lots of GS to bulk out the stomach and sculpt minor details like hair on one of the skulls and the back pack.  I had to build that entirely from GS and plastic tubes to mimic the destroyer hive on the normal Typhus model.

Undercoated Black ready for painting

The Destroyer Hive 

Poor lighting unfortunately, but he is finished! I will try to get a better shot done and change it soon.

Finally, the group shot!

Legion Update

Black Legion - What's Painted so far

Time for an up to date post on the army painting, the Black Legion are now getting painted nice and fast, with 18 x Marines, Abaddon, Thousands Sons Sorcerer, Hellbrute, Landraider, Typhus counts as, Storm Eagle, 10 x Chosen and 5 x Havocs already based and finished.  

Abaddon - WIP shots

That’s enough for a small 2,000pt game! (With a few undercoated models standing in, I have got 2,500 points from it nicely.  It literally ripped apart a tank heavy Imperial Guard army.)

Next up is the Raptor squad, Maulerfiend, Bikers and possibly the Cultists... there are about 60 of them to get through! 

 I really enjoyed painting these - Forgeworld models are always good, but these seemed to be enjoyable more than previous stuff.  Although, they were a pain in the proverbial to get cleaned up ready to take paint.

I decided on a Heavy Flamer and a mixture of power fists and Lightning Claws for the squad, to roam free or accompany Typhus at the moment.

Once the Cultist are done, he will run with them and make.... 

ZOMBIES!! - who wouldn't? 

Here are some work in progress shots of the bikers, these are now undercoated black ready for painting, hey look really good here, but once undercoated I was annoyed to find a lot of detail was lost.

Might go back to the drawing board for these.

Next up will be a photo of the Chosen (10 man unit) and hopefully a Rhino or unit of Raptors.

Comments are welcomed!

New Gamers, an Awesome "games" room and a bit of fun

Its been awhile, which is both good and bad.  I have recently started a new company (www.M247.com) and hobby time has dwindled down to very little!

Although, pleasantly I have found the staff receptive to trying new things, so almost every Thursday night we have a games night.  My regular opponent had to ditch, so I made the most of it, with 5 other eager volunteers.

M247 have a great space that they are happy for us staff to use, so we set about turning our conference room into our gaming room for the night.  The scene was set for a 6 player "Intro Game" to 40K.

I had about 3K of my Black Legion with me, so I split this into 2 roughly equal forces (One themed more around traitor guard than CSM's) led by a Tzeentch Sorcerer.  The other side was a smaller more hard hitting force that had come to punish the upstart sorcerer and his rebellion.  The game would last a random amount of turns from turn 4 onwards, and the objective was to hold the temple in the middle of the board with a unit at least 50% or more strong.

 The game underway!

Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and most of the basic rules were covered.  Next time I may try just building a lot of scenery and getting the guys into painting it, or might just end up doing a small 400points free for all.

Much fun, and thanks to those involved.

Reaver Titan

Well, it's a rocky start after an exciting burst of enthusiasm the first stumbling block has occurred. I picked up a ton of foam board from Hobbycraft (3 huge sheets for a tenner!) but sadly it's just no good. It would be an awful lot of work to get it to work... See picture for the problem below:

Too many gaps, and will take a punishing with paint.  So I have ordered some good old plasticard and will tackle this as plastic instead.

Really want to do this but it's a big challenge! The size is good as you can see below, but I really want this to be perfect and I am a stickler for trying to keep things simple. 

After looking at so many blogs and pictures from Dakka, Warseer etc, there is enough inspiration out there to get this nailed... I start a new job next week and want to try and get this made at least to the waist by the end of the month. More than likely will fail that target, but lets try.

I other news, I picked up a crap load of cool pipe bits from Wickes for about £8 (enough for the basic structure of the legs, body and arms - all in really strong PVC) 

More updates due soon 

Chosen and Nurgle additions to the Black Legion

First steps into getting the Chosen squad done for my Black Legion. After reading the new iPad supplement, I'm going to have to make some God specific versions too!  I have a squad of ten, all made from the Dark Vengeance box set, with a few weapon swaps here and there. Determined to paint them in time for Thursday gaming at Games Workshop High Wycombe.

Then for good measure my version of the Nurgle Champion (will count as Typhus)