Painted Gubbins

Hi!

Over the last couple of days I've been trying to clear my painting desk and have finished a few more bits and bobs!

First up, I've now got three finished Khorne thugs:

 Angry People

I'm slowly painting through my little box of Age of Sigmar and hope to have my unit of Bloodbound finished before too much longer.

Next up a classic Dwarf Ironbreaker:

 Dwarven Steel!

I really enjoyed painting up the little fellow as the classic Dwarf sculpts by GW really are fantastic. I have a few more to do which I've had kicking around for a few years now since I picked up a pile of Dwarves for a tenner at Claymore in Edinburgh!

Next up an armoured Familiar:

Tiny Tin

It's a wonderful little sculpt that I've mounted on a 20mm round base and now need to find a wizarding type as a master for him!

Lastly, there's a small retinue of 15mm Rogue Trader gubbins:

The Governor General and Retinue

I've had the idea of painting up a force or two for Rogue Trader in 15mm for a while and finally got started on the project with the Governor General of Farpoint and some henchmen and trusty droid as well as a ship's crew woman. I need to get the Governor's security force up to ten or so as well as some vehicles and assorted hangers on but quite like how the little unit look!

Hopefully I'll get chance to finish off a few more gubbins over the coming weeks!

All the best!

8th Edition 40k Musings

Hi!

Well after much waffling about taking a break from my usual hobby activities and I find myself perusing some of the news coming out about the new 40k that is coming out in June.

That was like, Ultra!

There seems to be quite a lot of outraged mutterings from the neckbeard community of power gamers who don't like change but for myself (fully bearded!) I quite like the sound of how things are changing. It looks almost like a return to 2nd edition but more streamlined and playable without needing a doorstop tome of a rulebook and it's also looking quite scalable so small forces are also an option rather than just Epic in 28mm.

Coupled with the fact that the narrative for 40k is actually moving forward a bit with new and interesting things happening, I may be tempted to pick up a copy and give it a bash!

Terra

It also looks like there's new larger scale Space Marines which I personally think will look great (especially when you look at all the Truescale conversions out there which make marines look properly heroic rather than rather Orangutans in armour.

I have been following the development of Age of Sigmar with rather a lot of interest and am slowly painting my way through the bits and bobs I have picked up and if GW can bring my jaded interest back to the fold, more power to them!

We shall see how things develop over the coming months and who knows, I may end up with some sci-fi gubbins to paint in the not too distant future!

All the best!

Running Quiet

Hi!

I'm afraid it may be some time before I get chance to post much on my blog as I have a major project that I have been pondering for some time on my hands.

I am going to be developing my Rusty Robots setting if for no other reason than I still love the little guys with their simplicity and charm. I have no plans on releasing any casts for them any time soon but I have the setting stuck in my head and a million ideas for it pouring out!

I've spent much of the last 7-8 years with it buzzing around the back of my mind and I've spent much of the last six months writing solidly for it so I have loads of drawing and sculpting to do which is rather exciting too!

Hopefully I will come back to my blog at some point but have a suspicion that Rusty Robots is going to be a fairly long term undertaking!

In the meantime, All the best!

Richard

Latest Daubings

Hi!

Well it's been a busy few weeks with work once again taking up nearly all my free time and the joys of Real Life using much of what I had left!

Still I have managed to paint a few bits and bobs!

First up, there's a test piece for my 2nd edition 40k warband that I've been swithering about:

 Snakebite Ork

He's had quite a bit of conversion work done to him but the addition of a top lip, hair squig and tongue gives him a decently 2nd edition vibe to him.

I'm still somewhat unsure about adding more to the mix but I am warming to the project somewhat!

Next up, here's a couple of Bloodbound thuggish types for Age of Sigmar:

Angry men with axes 

I've worked on them over the course of a couple of days and will be adding one or two more over the course of the week. I quite like them once painted and the 32mm bases are actually quite handy too. I've also been playing around with a darker basing technique with them and plan on adding some static grass tufts once I get the chance too.

Next up, there's a Grenadier Berzerker:

 Angry MacSmashface

I really like this guy as he's just so furious and has tons of character. I gave him quite a few scratches and cuts to represent him having actually been in a bit of a scrap.

I spent ages working on his skin tones to try out a more realistic style of painting and quite like how he's looking too. I may add a few chums to make a barbarian warband as I rather enjoyed painting him!

Next up, there's the Bat from Batman:

Attack VTOL

I really enjoyed painting a rather worn and battered vehicle and I will be adding it to my Lao force for Battletech and speaking of Battletech, I went back to the first of the Mechs I painted for said force and added a few more bits and bobs to give him more character:

Lao Raider

I seem to slowly be getting my painting mojo back again for the first time in absolutely ages and I hope to be able to add lots more gubbins in the coming month so watch this space!

In the meantime, Pirate Captain Easter Chick demands you have a fantastic Easter!

(thanks to my wife for painting chicks on me!)

Age of Sigmar - A Mini Review - Initial Thoughts

Hi!

Well I was out in sunny Dundee this morning and decided to head into my local GW (or Warhammer) store as I had been following some of the recent shenanigans with interest and picked up a copy of the intro set to Age of Sigmar on a bit of a whim and having perused it's contents, thought I'd post a bit of a review of my initial thoughts!

As I'm on a bit of a budget at the mo, I picked up the smaller intro set called Storm of Sigmar which retails at £20 and must say that I liked what I found!

The box itself reminds me of the classic GW plastic boxes of years gone by and it's a similar size to the old paint sets from the same period to give a bit of a scale reference. Included in the box are 13 miniatures plus bases, dice, transfers and a mini rulebook, not to mention some rather snazzy warscrolls for the miniatures contained in the set.

As with all GW products, the production quality is top notch with well printed and laid out rules and some rather nice miniatures too.

The mini rulebook runs to a grand total of 20 pages which includes scenarios and an introduction to the world of Age of Sigmar so the rulebook also covers a smattering of background and a bit of info on the forces that are included in the game.

While a lot of folks have poured scorn on the blowing up of the Warhammer world and simplification of the rules, I must admit it's quite refreshing just having a tiny amount of rules to look up and all the special rules a unit has included on its own warscroll (extra kudos to GW for having some nice illustrations on the back of them too!)

What I've found rather fascinating is the difference in tone between Age of Sigmar and 40k/Warhammer. Yes things are a bit grimdark in places but the narrative abounds with hope for good to beat the tar out of evil for a change and the full colour artwork that AOS seems to abound with really lightens things up a bit from the classic black and white of days gone by.

It really looks like GW are trying to do something to attract the computer game generations as well as breathing some life into the franchise which is rather good too!

The miniatures themselves are big and chunky but amazingly detailed for a plastic release too and I will be posting another review in the coming week to take a closer look at them but in the meantime, I'd recommend taking a peek at Storm of Sigmar, if for no other reason than to get a decent amount of figures and a small skirmish game that looks quite good fun!

All the best!

40k Musings

Hi!

Well I'm busily working away at sculpting a host of bits and bobs but I've been keeping a weather eye on some of the stuff that GW has been doing over the last couple of months as well as reading some Horus Heresy goodies too.

I must admit that GW's GrimDark approach of the last decade or so has left me utterly indifferent to all things 40k, especially as the required number of figures seems to almost double with each edition but almost in spite of myself, I am finding the goings on in the Imperium interesting.

Dakka Dakka et Blastem!

Better yet, they are kind of inspiring me to re-explore my reimagined Imperium and flesh out the setting a bit and possibly even paint some plastic tat!

Shocking I know but I'm finding the siren call of Space Marines rather tempting. Now I doubt that I am going to invest in anything resembling a massive army but I am pondering persevering with the new style Orks I have kicking around as well as keeping an eye out for some Marines to mix it up with!

I think I will use a small scale 500 point warband as a target and see how things go as that's not too big a challenge to aim for and will try to continue posting articles about how my version of the Imperium develops!

In the meantime apologies for the rambling and all the best!

A Slight Spanner in the Works

Hi!

Well I'm back from my holiday and have been trying to start up my Orky project but have hit a slight snag. I've rummaged out some of the new style GW plastic Orks to try out some painting tests but am not loving the miniatures at all.

Maybe I'm being ridiculous but I just can't warm to the style that GW have developed.

Blood Axe Kommando

A couple of years ago I painted up this Kommando which was great fun but the over muscled and mindlessly angry greenskin apes that are currently available just don't have that slightly comedic whimsy that the first and second edition sculpts had. 

Initially this seemed to be a major problem that would stump my hopes of an Orky force but I went back to the drawing board. Literally.

I decided to throw caution to the wind and sculpt my own gubbins! I've sculpted Orks in 15mm and SD scale before but wanted to go for something in between with a rather cartoony style but a bit chunkier than my previous efforts.

I'm quite pleased with the results and have just about finished my test sculpt which I am going to have a bash at casting in resin so I can actually put a decent sized force together.

 Goff Nobz, Painboy and Mekaniak 

I must admit that it's been really great fun to get back into drawing and sculpting and not to stress about work or indeed disliking someone else's sculpting style when it comes to painting the final figure and it's proving to be a very successful way of dealing with the stresses of the dreaded Real Life too!

 Ork Nobz and Mega Armour 

I'm hoping to have some progress to show on the sculpting front in the coming week but the temptation to start playing around with concepts has been rather strong so I suspect I may get slightly distracted by developing concepts for my own take on some of the other forces...

Marine Captain and Dreadnaught

With a bit of work, the Ork concept piece will be finished by the weekend and I'll try and get some pics taken then but in the meantime, All the best!