Warhammer World Trip - Exhibition and Horus Heresy Armies

Last weekend we had another gathering which included a trip to Warhammer World.

There we spent far too much on resin (and Black Library books if I'm honest) and played a game of Zone Mortalis that was probably the worst game when it comes to luck and poor army choice I've ever had. Our sides combined Daemons and Nids did not do well...(though I still claim the lack of scatter terrain and doors on the WHW ZM board is a big issue which severely put us at a disadvantage).

Anyway, we also paid another visit to the exhibition which has seen two new big set ups since our last trip.

I've kept the pictures big and there are a lot of them...

Age of Sigmar:

Tau v Adeptus Mechanicus:

Horus Heresy:

The main reason I wanted to go in the exhibition again is to see the Horus Heresy armies they have on show at the moment.

I tried to get pictures of every force but alas some just didn't come out (I hate the cabinets they use).

Like I said, a lot of pictures.

A Tale of Two Boxes...

So I had a couple of boxes arrive...

As so many others have done I picked up a copy of Betrayal of Calth. Well worth the money I think - even though the Mk. IV's are going to others the game looks nice and the other models will go towards either the DG or another Heresy force in the future.

However the Monster box is gorgeous. Jam packed with stuff and weighs a ton. In fairness it was a quite a bit more than Calth so you can't compare the two like for like. At this point (without doing more than opening the boxes and peering inside) they both look very good value.

We plan on playing Calth next weekend at our Meet Up, no chance of getting Monster sorted by then so that shall have to wait to the next gathering.

Here is another look at that Monster.

Almost too nice to open.

Bunker Rebuild 1

As mentioned in the last post I picked up a Forge World bunker not that long ago off eBay.

It's been out of production for a while which is a shame and it meant I had to pay though the nose for it now...

This is how it arrived:

Overall in decent condition. Some air bubbles from the casting and some rough areas which need cleaning up.

My plan is this, remove the sand bags, remove the bits and bobs on the inside, fill in any sculpted battle damage, fill in air bubbles, re-detail roof, interior and exterior and finally do a couple of moulds and cast enough to fill a battlefield.

Much resin dust was created in working on this bunker...

First off the sand bags were sawn off and the bits on the inside removed.

I then cut a 7mm deep groove around the base of the bunker, 3mm was then taken off the bottom of the bunker. The reason for this is to be able to sit the bunker into a shape cut into the MDF base I will be using. I can also do the same with a Realm of Battle board if I ever get round to doing a seige/trench gaming board.

Moving onto the dremel removed the rest of the sand bags remains and clean up a few other areas. Lots of sanding followed.

The ammo box was removed from the inside. Filling started with Milliput and lots more sanding.

Onto the roof the big rivets were removed and the lifting bars cut out and the top filled and sanded. Likewise all around the top milliput and sanding was used to smooth everything over and fill gaps/battle damage.

The reason I removed the bars was so that I can cast the roof then drill out the end pieces and put some rod down the hole. The big rivets will be replaced with some ball bearings put into drilled holes.

The underside of the roof was also cleaned up, filled and sanded.

Since then I have done more filling and sanding, including to the top of the bunker walls to give a better join between the roof and wall tops.

Next step will be to add some lugs to the roof so that it can locate into holes in the wall tops.

After that the detailing will be done. This (at the moment) includes:
Internal lights,
Armour plates at the front,
Comms unit,
Rear door.

Other things may get added as I think of them.

Been a while since I have done that sort of work, not entirely sure how it will turn out.

Recalcitrant Daze - Insert Witty Title Here.

So yeah, been a while.

My motivation is still rather lacking, however I am trying to slowly get back into things and I have even started working on a bit of terrain (see below).

While I haven't been doing any hobby stuff or posting on RD I have been following everything, such as the blogs, forums and new releases.

So here is a meandering post, with little pre-thought, direction or any plan to what may be written.

Warning: There is a lot to read through with little in the way of eye candy. I won't be offended if you don't bother. I shall resent it obviously, but not hold it against you.

Forge World Bunker Re-birth.

I always wanted some FW bunkers, but they have been out of production for some time. I picked one up from eBay a while back and I decided this would be a nice project to get myself back into the hobby. I won't show too much at the moment other than the pic below showing how it arrived in the post (though the roof isn't shown), but the plan is to clean it up, remove anything I don't want, re-detail it, change a few things and then re-cast it so I can have several (please don't ask for casts though, I will be doing casts only for my gaming group).

The sand bags were the first thing that went...so much dust...

Injury set back.

Keeping this short, but my getting back into the hobby had a set back when I buggered up my back a week ago (partly due to standing at two six our gigs in two days and partly due to tripping the day after). This put a kink into any plans to sit at a desk and work on the bunker. There were some other complications resulting from this as well which made the week interesting to say the least. So now I have to slowly get myself back into the getting back into the hobby phase...there is a lot of back in that paragraph.

One of the models from the show.

 IPMS Modelshow 2015.

 You've probably already seen the pictures I took when I attended the  IPMS show in Telford on Sunday, As always it was worth attending  even though I couldn't stay as long as normal or look for all the bits I  was after (I was looking for some bits to detail the bunker with) -  frankly it just hurting too much to stay any longer.

 I picked up plenty of rubber for some new moulds I have planned and  some milliput, not a huge amount but the saving in postage for the  rubber was worth attending alone.


Meet Up.

In a couple of weeks our little gaming group will have another of it's regular Meet Ups. This gathering includes a trip to WHW so there is a chance I may do a blog post afterwards with pics of the games and/or other things to see.

Not sure if I will go through the display area again as I don't think there is much that has appeared since my last visit which wasn't long ago at all.

May pop into the FW store while I am there...

Betrayal at Calth.

...to pick up some more Heresy stuff.

Like many I ordered the new box set with the very nice looking plastic Heresy stuff in. I only went for one box as I already have a largish army of FW Heresy sitting in a box waiting to be built. All I really want from the box is the termies, characters, dread and the game itself. The Mk. IV are destined for others (if only it was Mk II or Mk. III in the box...).

Look at the barrels on that.

The prospect of GW producing more plastic kits for the Heresy is both exciting and scary. If we see a full plastic Contemptor kit (along the same lines as the regular Marine Dread), plastic Deimos hull kits, other Marks of armour (especially Mk. II), assault marines and Spartan or Sicaran kits I may have some sort of an emotional and financial breakdown. Oh god, imagine a dual Falchion/Glaive kit along the lines of the Baneblade/Shadowsword kit...not going to happen but it's hard not to get moist at the idea...

Flying Things to Come.

Even though I've not been doing models the hunt for more to buy is always in progress.

So this week I finally started the Aeronautica Imperialis Chaos Fleet. God they are expensive on eBay...if FW sold them double their original price I'd still buy a shed load and save money.

Hell Blades and Hell Talons are just so damn sexy. But I do so want a Harbinger as well...

Imagine it with an escort of a dozen Hell Blades...

It was such a shame when Forge World dropped AI. Not only because it was a damn good game but it seemed to go just as fliers entered regular 40k. With planes at the forefront of peoples minds it might have been a good time to have a plane based game available. It also went away just as similar (similar, but not the same) games came along such as the very popular X-Wing. I like X-Wing, it's a very fun game but I do think AI offered something different that set it apart.

The other big reason was the explosion of new aircraft in the setting - both from GW with new Dark Eldar, Eldar, Marine, Chaos and Necron fliers which could have expanded the existing AI lines and introduced whole new ones, but also from Forge World itself with the slew of new, mainly Marine, fliers we have seen over the last couple of years.

But alas it is gone...Please Mr Forge World sirs, won't you bring it back for us?...(I say that with a small chance that Andy Hoare might be reading this and put in a word for me...I know, I'm desperate)

Blogs Worth a Look:

Inconsistent Crap - That is the blog name, not my comment on it. Not a new blog but one back from the dead with some great paint jobs to see from Foot of Adhesive Tape.

Rob Hawkins Hobby Blog - Great stuff to see, including a very impressive Nagash, with extra sculpting and a spot on paint job, shown recently.

I'm not sure what others to add, the problem with doing this every so often is I lose track completely of what blogs I have already mentioned. I don't want to miss any out but then I don't want to look like an idiot and 'showcase' the same blog half a dozen times...I suppose I could look back through my posts but that would involve an amount of effort I'm not comfortable in expending at the moment.


I think that will do for now, enough to be getting on with.