Chaos Renegade Militia - Infantry Build Redux 12

Made some progress on the Militia.

Artillery Crew (note I stuck with doing eight in the end):

Missile Launcher Teams.

Infantry Command Squad Teams:

 

Infantry Squad A Teams:

After a grey coat:

Current State of Play:

Note I have removed the Cyclops Crew and Rough Riders.

Next up to get the new Lascannon built and cast so I can get those six Lascannon teams done.

Into The Archives - My Early White Dwarf Reads (Part One)

So in the "Great Sort of '16" aka me-sorting-out-some-stuff-while-decorating-the-spare-room I came across the few White Dwarf magazines I kept.

In hindsight I do wish I hadn't given years and years worth of WD's to the recycling bank as so many of the articles would have been worth keeping.

Anyway the ones I did keep were the very first ones I bought, plus a few even older ones I picked up early on (in those days GW stores would have old magazines they had left on the shelf for people to buy). I thought I'd have a browse through and show what made me keep hold of them...

White Dwarf #124

Ah, #124, my first ever White Dwarf. I paid £1.50 for this way back in March 1990. So it's just past its 26th birthday. I should have bought it a cake.

Artwork on the cover, oh how I miss thee.

For this issue we have a Dark Future piece by Les Edwards. Love the guys missing tooth and almost Aquilla like tattoo.

The contents is a real mixed bag of articles. We have Chaos Warbands from Realm of Chaos, a Dark Future campaign (part one), Eldar concept artwork, Epic rules for Imperial Guard and Orks, Ork rules and background for 40k and Chaos Beastmen. Plus we have pages from 'Eavy Metal and news pages spread throughout.

Realm Of Chaos...Chaos Warbands

God I loved this article 26 years ago, and frankly I still do. It lays out in a novel way how two Chaos Warbands, one Nurgle and one Tzentch, grew and prospered in the Chaos Wastes.

We also get to see the two warbands in model form painted by the 'Eavy Metal team.

I still want to put together a Chaos Warband...

Dead Man's Curve - Dark Future. 

I so need to put together that set I picked up off eBay. I only played it a few time the first time around but it was a great little game with plenty of articles in White Dwarf to expand the game and setting (along with a few novels which I'm happy to say I have on the shelf).

This article brings in campaigns, we aren't talking a few pages here, we are talking about an in depth article with lots of information.


Eldar - What can I say? I love the sketches of Jes Goodwin and I spent far too long staring at these pages, I devoured each and every sketch and re-read all the annotation. I get the same buzz nowadays when going to a Forge World event and looking through Mark Bedford and his fellow designers sketch books. This is the time when the Eldar gained their Aspect Warriors.








I mean, he even sketches out the warpaint the warrior would paint on their faces - even though you would never see this on a model due to them always wearing a helmet.



Well this is a nicely timed example of an 'Eavy Metal page from an early White Dwarf..

Epic Imperial Guard and Orks.

Two articles giving new rules for both factions in Space Marine - the expansion to Adeptus Titanicus adding infantry and tanks as well as new forces to the walking God Machines of Man.

Guard with Jump Packs!

Gibletgrinda!

Ork Vehicles, Artillery and Weirdboyz.

Cyboars!

Orks were so much fun back in their earlier incarnations. It meant dealing with a shed load of tables and many random things, but damn were they fun.

Minders 'protectin' a Weirdboy

While the first article was mainly rules the second is packed full of background material which again did wonders at catching my interesting in the madness of the Greenskins. This Weirdboy article actually came from the 'Waaargh the Orks' book which was being worked on by the Studio at the time. Can you see them doing that nowadays? Giving us a glimpse of something to come.



Beastmen.

Probably my favourite article in the issue, actually it's one of my favourites ever articles and one of the big reasons White Dwarf pulled me into the hobby fully with no chance of escape. It warped my 13 year old mind and help shape it into the dark void it is. The black and white artwork and the dark tales it told of Beastmen warbands in the forests of the Old World meant I read and re-read the article for weeks to come.

It brought to the world pages of background material before moving onto rules for creating Beastmen warbands (I still love the random nature of creating the warbands).

One day I will build myself a Warband and crush the other forest dwellers under my cloven foot...

So that was White Dwarf #124.

Hopefully you liked this little distraction, especially as I'll be covering another one of the early issues which got its hooks into me next week.

Chaos Renegade Militia - Infantry Build Redux 11

Oh the fun I'm having.

The heavy weapon teams are progressing, slowly, but progressing.

Above we have the new bits for the Missile Launcher teams. Bottom left is the original GW missile, then we have the 3D printed master and next to it a cast missile.

Centre is the first ammo box I did, to the right of that we have the 3D printed master of the new box and below that a cast example (also insert top right showing the handle in place).

As a reminder here are the renders of the 3D models:

The first two teams based:

When the PVA has fully dried I'll add the other bits to the bases (lasguns, ammo box etc).

"Are you going to give me the damn missile Dave or just sit there like an idiot?"

The other teams are proving a pain in the arse. Trying to find arms for the second crewman so I can having him carrying the ammo box is making me want to do bad things.

I spent a good hour or so last night just searching through bits boxes, trying out different options and at the end of it got nowhere.

Any suggestions?

Meanwhile I did a bit more making the new Lascannon. This will hopefully end up as a master I can recast to do all of the teams I have. So far I've spliced together a standard HW team lascannon and a lascannon from the Sentinel kit.

Still a lot to do on it.

I started to pull apart the original lascannon teams. They will need a big overhaul.

Another update on them in a couple of days probably.

Recalcitrant Daze - Comings and Goings.

I got a little done on the Militia earlier (30 minutes counts) but otherwise it has been a day of sorting some things.

As such I have some more bits on ebay...

Bits for sale.

Including a Chaos Warhound Plasma Blastgun, a set of Volkite Culverins and an Ork Deffkopta.

I've also decided to shift my last two Chimeras. The fact is I never use them, while I enjoyed converting them they just sit in a box. The Militia is very much a static defensive force so while I am tempted to keep one as a transport for one of the Vet squads the fact is I'll never take it over another tank or the Hell Hound I have.

So these two will probably go on eBay next Sunday, unless someone drops me an email before then saying they want either of them off me:

Likewise I also have a few Genestealer Cult models which I need to sell off - I've been buying them up for Sheep but these guys are spare, note they will need a bit of clean up and/or gap filling.

Now it's not just about selling stuff on eBay, I have, of course, been buying stuff off there as well.

For the Deathguard we have some Rapiers, though one of the ones in the picture is destined for the ranks of Nife's Heresy force.

I also picked up the Forge World Nurgle Herald which I have wanted for ages. This does mean I now have far too many Heralds for my Nurgle Daemon army. I think some will become purely for the War Altar.

This evening I very nearly put in a £700+ bid for a set of the Imperial Fortress Walls. Thankfully I didn't. I did have to walk away from the laptop to make sure I didn't.

I do want one of those sets though.

Maybe one day I'll build one. May need a bigger house.


There is something I would have bought this weekend, the Index Astartes Apocrypha book. However due to Games Workshop limiting it so much they didn't get my money (and I'm not going to pay eBay prices for one).

I'm no business man but I fail to see their reasoning behind decisions like this. I mean they have been advertising the Anniversary model today even though it sold out within a few hours Saturday morning. Why bother hyping something that is produced in such small quantities that it will sell out immediately anyway with so many being bought purely to sell on at stupid prices?

I know some get annoyed by Forge World and their event exclusive models, but I don't think that is the same. The models are not limited in quantity and are available for a full year - while you can only buy them at events there are a lot of those spread around and most can find people to pick one up for them or to pick them up off eBay at reasonable prices if you wait till after the rush of the first release is done.

Anyway I can't be bothered getting annoyed, it's not worth it.

Chaos Renegade Militia - Infantry Build Redux 10

Have I said how much of grown to hate these buggers? Probably, but it's worth stating again.

So now the room is finished I don't have any excuses left to not get on with trying to finish the Militia infantry build off so I can send them to Sheep.

In summary I have the following to do at this point:

1. Artillery Crew (8 No.).
2. Cyclops Crew (3 No.)
3. Missile launcher Teams (4 No.)
4. Mortar Teams (3 No.)

Today I made a start. Again. No idea how many times I've made a 'restart' on this force.

At the end of the day I've made progress on the artillery crew, however I thinking of revising the army list so that I only need the minimum of six (seriously, this is how fed up I am of them, I'm now doing what I can to cut down on the numbers I need to mess around with).

The one guy is originally from the command squad from FW. Had the usual casting issue with the cables so cue a good hour cutting, drilling and Dremmeling to replace them. I also had to replace the end oft he barrel as the sodding thing broke off.

What a smug bastard.

I've also decided to drop the Cyclops units from the force. Partly because it makes life easier as they aren't actually an option in the IA13 list and partly because that is three less models I need to build & convert.

I've started pulling apart the missile launcher teams so I can re-base them on 50mm bases. I've also started the mould for the new bits for the teams.

Unfortunately I've also given myself more work to do by deciding to convert the lascannons. I've never liked the plastic lascannon due to it being so bloody huge. It's meant to be a man portable support weapon but it's nothing like it.

As such I've decided to cut them down and remove the separate power unit, I reckon it is big enough to have an internal power unit. The barrel is now shorter and I've moved the mounting point back. In the pic it is just blu-tacked together. Still needs more work before I move onto the others.

Thankfully the crew can stay as they are, so it won't be a complete pain to change them all.

Hopefully.

Not a lot I admit, but I mainly did the post so Sheep can see I really am working on them again.

Modelling. Of a Kind. Finished.

So the spare/hobby room is finally done. Over the coming weeks I'm sure I'll be rearranging some things and finding the better place for everything. However for now all the work is done, everything is back in the room and the house is finally back to normality, of a kind.

Main Desk.

Most re-organising in the coming weeks will be round my main desk, especially what is on the desk and what goes on the shelves.

Under the desk are some of my bits boxes, model bag and the 'under desk' which is home to the stereo.

The 'Other' Desk.

This is ll set up now, Everything in it's places and the casting set up ready to go.

Hanging up is a bag of clean rags, the bag is actually from the first time I took part in Games Day, organising and running the Ammobunker forums presence there. Can't believe that was 2008. Or was it the second time? I can't remember.

Spare Bed/Storage/Back Up Desk.

I rebuilt the spare bed raising it and adding the extra storage including the draw units. At some point i'll sort through everything I have just shoved under there.

I also replaced the back up desk so that it is lighter and can be folded away when the bed is needed, previously I've had to take the board down and find a place for it when people stay. In the future I may redo the hinges so they are recessed but I couldn't be arsed at the moment. It may get a lick of paint at some point as well.

That is that for now.

May actually get to do something with a model soon...