End of the Year Roundup!

Hi!

Well it's been an eventful year here at Spacecow Towers!

We've moved house, got a cat and I've reignited my joy of painting which has been a real boon. Ironically, this year has seen me paint far less than the last few years and I didn't even play any games over the course of the last twelve months.

Now with that out the way, I have high hopes for the next twelve months!

I've got some projects which are starting to build up a little bit of steam and I really want to get a game or two in as well as keeping up with the painting.

Firstly, there's my oft picked up and forgotten Epic project which I finally seem to be building up traction with.

Marauding Renegades

I currently have several small forces which I am hoping to expand into complete armies in the coming year. For the most part, this is going to be relatively easy to do as I have a goodly amount of unpainted Epic figures knocking about. I do however still need some assorted gubbins for my Eldar force as it's a little threadbare at present.

Eldar Raiders

The plan is to slowly add to each force and try out a few different game systems over the next twelve months which is a fairly manageable goal to set myself, especially as the number of figures I have to paint to get the the game size I am interested in is pretty low.

Secondly, my 15mm figures have taken a bit of a back seat over the last year or so with most of the stuff packed away for the house move and not yet in any gameable state. 

Ghoulani

I have some plans for the little guys in the new year which should see me getting my 15mm mojo back too in a limited but focused way. I'm hoping to actually paint up quite a bit of the mini leadpile I have accrued over the last few years with the ongoing Farpoint project and will post some updates on my plan in the new year.

Farpoint Yak Pack

Finally, I seem to have fallen back in love with 28mm scale which is both great and highly annoying!

Denizens of the Labyrinth

I must admit that this is something I am having a bit of a quandary about as I've been finding myself sorely tempted to expand my dabblings into a longer term and rather more ambitious project but am worried that I would sicken myself and end up in a painting funk that would ruin my enjoyment of my hobby which is something to be avoided at all costs!

As a way of appeasing myself, I am thinking that I need to have a bash at painting up a small regiment in 28mm on good old fashioned square bases or a full squad of something 40kish and see how I cope. I want to avoid the more modern sculpts where possible, reserving the more complex and detailed pieces I happen across for my Labyrinth project.

Now I doubt I will manage to put together much more than that at a push but I will have to see how I get on and whether this scratches my Middlehammer cravings that seem to refuse to go away, no matter how much I try!

If I do this, the larger scale figures will probably be purely for the fun of painting as I really don't have the space to play anything like a game of Fantasy Battle or 40k in 28mm but I keep finding myself hankering after something retro that my teenaged self used to obsess over.

With this in mind, I look forward to the coming year and hope that I will get chance to put some of the assorted projects I seem to have found myself with into operation!

In the meantime, All the best and I hope you all have a fantastic New Year!

Epic Musings

Hi!

Well I've been slowly painting some more epic scale gubbins for my Ultramarines as well as bodging some more buildings together and have had some further rambling thoughts on what I want to do with my collection moving forward into the new year.

I've got a decent amount of unpainted goodies still to work through, not to mention a complete starter set of Epic 40k awaiting me in the new year but I seem to be getting lots of ideas for reinforcements for my existing forces as well as entirely new ones.

 Mercenary Armour

I'm thinking of putting together an Imperial Guard formation too to match my 15mm stuff so I can try playing around with some larger scale encounters in the Farpoint sector. The plan is to slowly paint my way through everything I have in 6mm (which is a surprising amount!) and try to play out a campaign over the course of 2018.

 That was like, Ultra!

As things stand, I have a decent skirmish force for my Ultramarines and Eldar but need to bulk both out to cover all the options that I want to cover. My Squats are slowly coming together but I really need to add some more heavy vehicles to the mix. I have enough gubbins to build a decent Chaos renegade force as well as a fair chunk of Orks which should cover most eventualities.

Ultramarine VII company 

I'm hoping to incorporate several scales to the campaign, be they 15mm scale skirmishes, large scale rumbles in 6mm, dogfights in space and even some fleetscale shenanigans. I have several days off coming up over Christmas and between festive food I'm hoping to start building up my assorted forces and bulk up my scenery collection as well as getting the background put together for the upcoming campaign!

Eldar Raiders

I'm rather enjoying the prospect of playing out some game and hope that it will spur me onto painting more and really re-engaging with my hobby too! 

Now I doubt my armies will ever total the likes of this classic 2nd edition army but I plan on enjoying myself over the next twelve months!

 If only!

I think that I need to do a bit of a stocktake of the stuff I have and see about trading for the odds and ends that I'm missing and we shall see what I can put together and will post some further gubbins over the next few days including some epic scale Centurions for my Ultramarine legion!

In the meantime, All the best!

Mekboy Speedsta and Chaos Sighted!

Hi!

Well I've managed to get some pics taken of my latest additions to my assorted projects!

First up, there's a Evil Sunz Mekboy Speedsta:

Mekboy Speedsta

Based on a Hotwheels dragster with a simple repaint and addition of a ridiculously big gun, I'm really chuffed with how it turned out!

 Go Fasta!!

I originally got the idea to add a ridiculously massive hotrod from the old Kustom Speedstas from epic which featured mentally over charged rides with forcefields and random weaponry and really wanted to add an interesting addition to my Orkish forces in 15mm scale.

 Zog Off!

While there's no rules for the Speedsta in 40k, I couldn't resist having a go at putting one together and suspect it's going to get quite a bit of use careening around the table unleashing lots of dakka before exploding impressively!

Kustom Paintwork

Next up, I've been perusing my Epic collection and realised I was rather short on scenery so painted up a couple of hab blocks:

 Settlement beginnings!

Constructed from lids of coffee jars with some thin cardboard stuck on, I'm rather pleased with how they turned out, especially as they are a little bit reminiscent of the buildings featured in the original Rogue Trader rules!

 Latte and Espresso blocks

I've got several more in various stages of construction and will add pics of them as I get them finished and am rather chuffed how they turned out. The most difficult part was priming the finished scenery as the plastic lids have a rather shiny finish that was a pain in the bum to get paint to adhere to!

Lastly, here's a quick sneak peek of my Chaos raiders that I've begun painting up for my skirmish forces:

Bwahahahaahaaa!

I'm rather enjoying painting up the little chaps and have several more bases getting worked on at the moment as well as reinforcements for my Ultramarines.

I'm not too keen on the whole Grimdark background of Chaos so will be reworking them to better fit my Alternative Imperium setting which is more based on Roman society with a generous dose of world myths added in so prepare for the return of the Fallen Titans!

In the meantime, All the best!

Micro 40k

Hi!

I've been perusing with interest the newest edition of 40k and am thinking of giving it a bash but in typical me fashion, I am eschewing the usual 28mm scale for something a bit different.

What I am planning is to get some use from my Epic collection to play a game or two!

That was like, Ultra!

Having looked at the changes GW has done to what was a very clunky and frankly unusable system has been rather refreshing with lots of nods to 1st and 2nd edition which I like but also streamlined and simplified which is even better!

Looking at my Ultramarine force though, I realise that I need to add some elements to give me a nicely rounded little force.

Ultramarine Force

At present, I have a Captain and three Tactical squads, a Terminator squad, a Dreadnaught, a Landraider and Rhino transports. To make my force a little more playable, I need to add a heavy weapon or two the the existing squads as well as adding some more crunchy squads and armour to give me many different choices and a playable and characterful force.

My Eldar are in much the same state!

Eldar Raiders

I have a Warlock, lots of Guardians and Falcons as well as some Dark Reapers, Banshees, a Dreadnaught and a Vyper but want to add some extra gubbins to the force to round it out!

Game wise, I think that the multi figure bases should work ok and changing measurements from inches to centimeters should deal with scaling issues. To top it off, I think I could play a decent sized game on a 2'x3' board!

I need to have a bash at some smaller games first to see how things work and to get the hang of the new rules but I quite like the idea and will be playing around with it to see how it works over the next few days and will report progress when I make it!

In the meantime, Stay Ultra! 

The Agamemnon

Hi!

As promised, here's some pics of a miniature that I've been painting over the last week!


The Agamemnon is a Vulkan class mega dreadnaught that the Ultramarines have recently deployed on Farpoint to deter some of the restive Ork tribes from attacking the capitol, Freeport City.

 The Agamemnon

Armed with a Plasma Blastgun and Defence Laser as its main armament and backed up with a defensive multilaser not to mention massive adamantium slab armour and several void shields, the Agamemnon excels at targeting armoured foes. It's sheer weight and lumbering mass means it is mostly used in a defensive manner but thanks to a Vox XIV supercharged powerplant upgrade it recently received, The Agamemnon can put on a surprising turn of speed if required.

Ultramarine IV Legion markings

Although rarely used, the Vulcan class mega dreadnaught can be found in most Legion armouries and in the right circumstances, it's devastating firepower can reduce even Ork Gargants to scrap metal. 

The Agamemnon has a crew of two marines, one pilot who has control of the defensive multilaser and the gunnery officer who sits above and behind the pilot in the vehicles extensive cockpit. The Vulcan class sports very advanced scanning and targeting gear and is able to aim it's massive firepower with pinpoint accuracy.

Powerplant

It's two primary weapons cause a large drain of energy in the mechs power plant and as such, their crew tends to strike with the long range defence laser and use the plasma blastgun as a one shot kill once the target is weakened. Even with this measure, the heat buildup in the cockpit can be ferocious.

Plasma Blastgun 

The Agamemnon is originally a toy from the Havok range produced by Bluebird in 1997  and I fondly recall picking up their starter set for about a tenner from Argos when it first came out. Sadly I never got round to painting this guy and he has sat unpainted for almost exactly 20 years. The infantry got used in my Imperial Guard force which has long since been lost to ebay but this guy has sat in a box till last week when I finally decided to paint him.

 Eat Plasma!

He scales pretty well with a 28mm 40k Dreadnaught and if anything is a bit bigger but in 15mm scale, he pretty much counts as a Knight. In my version of the Imperium, Space Marine Dreadnaughts don't always contain badly mangled veterans but actual crews who operate them as actual mechs. The badly mangled will get incorporated into the Cyborg units but more on that for a later day!

 Pow Pow!

While long out of production, I did see another on ebay for 99p a couple of weeks ago so they can be picked up quite cheaply and as he's sculpted by Bob Naismith, he's pretty handy for folks who want to keep to the 40k classic aesthetic too!

Stand Fast!

Having spent almost a full week painting the big guy, I am taking a wee break from large figures and going for some 6mm goodness which I will post about in my next blog entry but I'm feeling rather inspired!

In other news, I've had to put comment moderation on again as for the first time in several years I seem to be attracting the spammers again which is really annoying me as I've had to fish back through posts to remove the offending comments. 

On a brighter note, I have pulled all the old posts and ramblings from my blog cull of last year back onto Tales From Farpoint as I was wanting to check back through some of my old gubbins and couldn't find them so there's now about 600 blog posts to peruse which weren't there before covering all sorts of stuff from background to ramblings and lots of pics too so do feel free to have a peruse!

Expect another post soon with pics of lots of tiny things!

All the best!

Micro Fantasy

Hi!

As I've been sorting through my unpainted gubbins over the last few days, I found my Horned Folk warband that I started a couple of years back and have been humming and haahing about what to do with it.

A Horde of Horned Folk

I like the round bases but it doesn't really suit itself to massed fantasy games but I did begin wondering if I could use it for skirmishes using Song of Blades or warband level battles using Dragon Rampant.

Small Wartower

I've got an eclectic mix of Heavy infantry and warbeasts at the moment so need to diversify it a bit as well as working on my Grey Elf host to oppose it but as I have all the miniatures, I figure it would fit in well with my aim to start clearing through my lead (and plastic) pile.

Minotaur Legion 

I must admit that I am rather relishing getting on with some small scale stuff after the big guy I am working on at present is finished and I think I could churn out a second Beastkin regiment of four stands in next to no time and with just one Wartower to finish painting, I think that my weekend is set!

Raiders from the Ancient Labyrinths of Aeroth

I figure I can play out a decent game of the likes I've mentioned on the small board I have and just need to put together some more suitable scenics such as ancient forest groves and an entryway into their Barrow City...

Wartower Rampage!

Something else I've been ruminating on is to add a larger wartower or two featuring some arcane ancient tech to give the Horned Folk a nice centrepiece to their army but we shall have to see if I have anything suitable in my bits box that can be converted to use!

A Horned Folk column on the march

I'm also keen to get back to work on the Grey Elves I had started but I must be honest that cleaning and converting Irregular Miniatures is a bit of a chore as I have to remove their small and bendy halberds and replace them with wire spears while the chariots need converting too and lets not even mention the cavalry...

Grey Elves

I have discovered that I still have a 6mm Orc, bits and pieces of a Lizardman and Goblin armies from Irregular but I'm really not liking their strip of figures approach. It's fine for Warmaster type of games but not really ideal for my approach but I may be able to put together some useful bits and pieces from them from time to time without getting completely disheartened with the effort.

In other news, the big guy I've spent most of the last week painting is getting there with only one weapon and his legs to detail. Sadly I don't have a base big enough for him but I don't see that being too much of a problem at the moment and I'll post some pics this weekend of him once he's finally completed!

In the meantime, All the best!

Painters Progress

Hi!

As promised, here's some pics of the gubbins I've been painting over the last few days!

First up, there's Black Annis, the wizened hag who inhabits the Bog of Eternal Stench:

 Black Annis

Black Annis lives on an island at the centre of the Bog of Eternal Stench and holds a terrifying reputation due to her tendency to steal and eat children. This reputation is entirely undeserved as she is actually a rather peaceable sort who just wants to be left alone but her frightful visage has resulted in many fearing to to venture into the Bog for fear of meeting Annis.

Annis' solitary life has resulted in her tinkering with some of the Bogs inhabitants, especially the small frogs who can be found in many of the pools the dot the marshy land. With the aid of a bit of hedge magic and liberal potion use, Annis has given some a rudimentary intelligence and ability to talk. With the family she's created, not much happens around the Bog without Annis knowing about it. 

Black Annis has been in my collection for many years and dates back to my subscription to Harbinger magazine before it went bust (annoyingly just after I paid another year's subscription!) and is an absolutely brilliant miniature. She took ages to paint due to all the little details like feathers and chickens feet in her hair and the little frog clutched in her hand and she oozes character.

Sadly she's not in production so I'm not sure if folks can still get hold of her anymore.

Next up, there's Markus, another Outlander addition to my painted Labyrinth project:

Markus

Markus is a follower of Marik the Outlander and has roamed the Labyrinth  for over a century since his younger sister, Rosamund went missing and was presumed to have been stolen away by the Goblins. Since entering the Labyrinth, Markus has sought for any sign of Rosamund without success and will ask any he meets if they have seen her. Sadly no matter the answer, he will attack with his greatsword. Beneath his armour, Markus is no more than a wizened mummy but thanks the the magic of the Labyrinth, his spirit cannot find peace until Rosamund's fate is discovered.

Lastly, here's a better pic of The Smile Stealer:

The Smile Stealer

I'm really fond of this guy as I have had him in my collection for almost twenty years and he's one of the few figures of my old miniature collection that I never got rid of!

I am also currently painting another figure that I've had for over two decades but never actually painted and will post an update when I finish him off. This may take me some time as he's pretty big and needs a lot of weathering to finish him off but I'm really enjoying the process and the effort is well worth the finish!

After painting all these big figures, I am going to take a bit of a break to paint some smaller scale gubbins, both 15mm and 6mm scale!

In the meantime, All the best!

Unexpected Developments

Hi!

It's a cold, frosty and foggy morning here meaning that I'm not going to be able to get any decent pics of my painting progress and the latest additions to my Labyrinth project until my next day off but I have found myself ruminating on my lead pile.

Orky Boy

Over the years I have collected, traded, sold and lost quite a collection and even got out of the hobby twice and it's got me thinking about my remaining bits and bobs.

Ultramarine Veteran Platoon

I had planned on selling or trading them away but have been playing with the idea of just painting them up over 2018 instead as a challenge to myself as I just know that I would regret getting rid of them at some point in the future.

War of Ashes Warband

This will present me with a bit of a challenge as I have a box of 28mm, a box of 15mm and a box of 6mm as well as numerous bits and pieces of resin scenics and vehicles that could do with a lick of paint, not to mention quite a few of my own sculpts that need painting too (lets not even mention the big jar of stuff that's been swimming in dettol for quite some time now!)

Imperial Troops

With that in mind, I am putting a halt to any miniature purchases other than bases, paints and putty from now until I can put a major dent into my collection. This will mean that my Labyrinth project will be developing in a somewhat sideways direction as I currently don't have many Goblins but do have a regular cornucopia of random bits and bobs that will fit in.

Ghoulani Enslaver Raiding Party

Goblins will appear eventually as I haven't lost hope that I will find the little guys in an as yet undiscovered box but if not, I may be tempted to pick up a very small selection of bits and bobs to finish a warband.

It's been rather refreshing to just pick up a random miniature and paint it and I suspect that my attempts will have all manner of fits and starts as it goes but it will result in me having some rather large forces for Epic, a decent sized Eldar force for Rogue Trader, assorted fantasy warbands and at least three forces for 15mm skirmishes too!

With this in mind, I am going to have a good rummage through my collection and see what exactly I have that has languished in a box for years and will attempt to post some pics of the assorted stuff I have (at least when something like sunshine returns to Dundee!)

In the meantime, All the best!

Goblin Spotted!

Hi!

We'll I've finally had chance to take some pics of the first 28mm scale figures I've painted in over a year and better yet, one of them is a Goblin for my Labyrinth project!

 Agnar the Unruly

Agnar the Unruly is a large Goblin armed with a mighty battle axe named The Collywobbler. Agnar is rumoured to be in possession of one of Prince Jareth's Gateway Keys, a magical key that will open any door in the Labyrinth and something has put to good use in his fiendish thefts of Goblin maidens undergarments.

Agnar is the leader of a band of Goblin warriors known for wandering the outer portions of the Labyrinth in search of loot and trouble (technically they were tasked with guarding the place by Prince Jareth but in typical Goblin over enthusiasm, they prefer getting into a good scrap or daubing slogans on the walls of the Labyrinth. This has led to a feud between Aganr and his underlings and The Cleaners)

Agnar is a Rackham miniature that I picked up some time ago from Spirit Games and is a cracking figure but took ages to paint as he is really covered in little details that require a fair bit of effort to get right. I'll be adding a few more simple Gobbos as his underlings in the next week or so!

Next up, there's the Marik the Outlander:

 Marik the Outlander

Not all those who run the perils of the Labyrinth come out unchanged and one such is Marik. Once, many years ago, Jareth challenged him to navigate the Labyrinth but Marik failed and is cursed to forever wander the twisting maze.

Now clad in a rusty suit of Goblin made plate and wielding a mighty flail, Marik roams the Labyrinth challenging all he meets to combat.

Over the years several Outlander bands have formed to try and depose Jareth, escape the Labyrinth or even destroy it. These grim and driven groups have had mixed fortunes as the magic that fills Jereth's realm means that any damage done to the maze is soon repaired and many of the denizens who make the Labyrinth their home actively work against the uncouth louts who smash up their home.

The two side by side

Marik is an old Citadel chaos warrior and painted up really quickly but looks the business with his beaten armour, furs and big flail. I tried out some new techniques for painting rust on him and am quite pleased with the results. 

I also sculpted both bases to reflect the flagstones of the Labyrinth and really like how they turned out and will be using the same method for basing the rest of my 28mm gubbins!

As I mentioned in one of my previous ramblings, I seem to have lost most of my Goblin miniatures in one of our house moves so will be actively seeking out more in the next few weeks. Having rummaged my bits boxes, I do have several more chaosy types who will be getting added to my Outlander warband though and I've almost finished a Bog Hag who will be leading another warband, this time centred around the Bog of Eternal Stench!

Hopefully my next update will give a bit more details on some of the locations of the Labyrinth and the strange creatures who inhabit it.

In the meantime, All the best!