Climbing Model Mountain: Genestealer Cult

I have considered re-naming this series of posts something like "sea of green" because of my recent copious use of the primer that graces my undead, devotees of Nurgle and these, my Genestealer Cultists. The Cult consists of a primary detachment drawn from the Imperial Guard codex and an ally force of Tyranids. Not strictly 'legal' but where would be the fun in that?! So much painting work to do on these you wouldn't believe it, though oddly this is army that's seen the most tabletop action.

I've picked out the first photo to show my non-Cadian derived infantry units. From left to right: five 90s Ratlings, who will soon be boosted up to a full 10 'man' unit with a converted heavy weapon team - you've got to love the abhumans (current models will fill the sniper team role); then there's a Steel Legion unit, who can either be regular infantry or act as veterans; and finally a unit of Squats - all 80s metal with a tiny bit of tinkering to make them fit the current game (see a future post for details...).

We also have Zoats standing in for Ogryns (more 80s goodness) and two different sets of hybrids acting as penal squads. And I couldn't resist buying a Leman Russ tank for a little added beef - let's face it, tanks are cool. There's also a Psyker battle squad tucked in there next to six heavy weapons teams and three 'standard' infantry units.

Due to a lack of space I've resorted to keeping the Genestealers on a mini-shelf (another display cabinet is being hunted...). I'm using a Carnifex model as stand-in for a Hive Tyrant, which is a proxy for a Genestealer Patriarch. Most of the Genestealers are from Space Hulk for the obvious reason that they're better than the regular box models, although I have a few of those too.

The human (and abhuman) infantry are really flexible because not only could I play them as a straight Imperial or Planetary Defence force (they've taken on the Tau in this guise), I can also employ them as Traitor Guard to fight alongside my Nurgle gang - a role they've already fulfilled against Marines. This multiple personality trait is great in gaming terms and in the era of an ever-tightening budget. 

Climbing Model Mountain: Beastmen

Rejoice! It's the next batch of dodgy photographs of an army in my collection. This time, Beastmen. 

As with everything I have, these are all works in progress at some stage or another. On the right you can see my Gors, which are based in a range of colours ready to be worked up with layers of highlights. I like the idea that these will all have a signature look built up on different shades of bases that will show through to some extent. On the left are my Ungors, recently obtained and dressed in bright white. To the rear, you can get a glimpse of my Harpies - I'm hoping to do some work on these soon so they'll stay out of the limelight for now. And yes, that's an Avatars of War hero and a Hordes Shaman at the front there.

Just to the front in this astonishingly well taken photo are my mostly hidden Spider Centaurs. Again, these haven't changed since earlier posts, so I'll work on them a little more soon and then share. At the rear are the big guys - Minotaurs from Scibor and Mierce. The Scibor guys are a good indication of where all this lot are going stylistically.

Finally, a trio of hero/lord models, with little done to them. Missing are my Bestigors, who also feature in my Nurgle 40k army as Plague Zombies. Thinking about it, I might focus on this Brayherd in the next month as my first project at my home-away-from-home in Oxford. Hmmm...

A Dollar For A Foot In The Door - Reaper Bones 2 Kickstarter (And The Smell Of Something Fishy...)

This is the princely sum that I've paid to have a 'foot in the door' of the Reaper Bones 2 Kickstarter. I thought this was a very low level risk because it allows access to all the add-ons that will come from the campaign. I do admire all the minis that are available at the $100 level, I'm just not that interested in owning them. As per usual it's the big monsters I'm most anticipating. And I'm already delighted because this fishy fellow will be available for on $15:

Artistic Inspiration On The March

On the weekend we took the children and their grandmother to the National Museum in Cardiff. The children loved the natural history sections as they always do and we had a few minutes to fit in some of the art galleries. As we had the kids in tow this was done at double quick time, but I did have a chance to snap a couple of what I think are new additions to the collection. Both of the following show the kinds of colour mix, blends, overlaying and shading that I'm experimenting with at the moment. Except that I'm doing it on a cyclops and a ghorgon. 

Woman at the bath - Edgar Degas.
National Museum Cardiff

Effect of snow at Petit-Montrouge - Edouard Manet.
National Museum Cardiff 

More Dark Elves Gallop Over The Horizon

I actually had mixed feelings about the first wave of new Dark Elves. The Witch Elves are great but grossly over priced. The Hydra is a little uninspiring. The models for the Blood Throne are fantastic yet the throne is rather odd. 

Now the second wave pictures are being leaked I'm slightly more cautious than before. No quick off the mark 'loving' this time around. However, this duel aspect to Dark Riders kit looks very promising. I don't know what they're called but you can just make out from the captions that they're bound to provide new souls for Slaanesh to save their own. 

I'm sure I can make some of these fit into my RoC Slaanesh army, kit bashing them with a few Daemonatte bits. And for once the in house GW paint jobs don't immediately put me off either. 

Climbing Model Mountain: Monsters

Last year I wrote a series of posts called 'Climbing Sprue Mountain' to illustrate my whole collection and think about where all this plastic, resin and metal was headed. At that time a great deal of what I had really was on sprues. Twelve months on and now almost everything is built, based and primed, with plenty of models sporting the beginnings of a paint job. Progress!

So for this second annual journey to the summit of my collection I'm going to call it Climbing Model Mountain. I don't have time to do lovely 'professional' level photography, so all the photos are going to be of my models in their natural habitat; that is, on the display cabinet shelves. To begin, let's take a look at all my large monsters.

I've got plenty of these because I just love big kits and large models. These over-sized nasties all fit into my Beastmen army although I'm sure I could drop them into just about any fantasy force I was fielding.

From left to right we have: (1) my converted Razorgor utilising a boar body and manticore head; (2) what I call the Razormaw, which is a lightly converted Hordes Troll; (3) the Warhammer Giant; (4) the Jabberslythe - you'll notice I have so much basing to finish on all these models; (5) a Ghorgon, which is a model I really love and must get around to finishing; (6) a Manticore tucked away at the back there; (7) a Cockatrice with a really grimy, layered paint job half done; (8) a Chimera from Meirce Miniatures that needs a great deal of greenstuffing; (9) the Incarnate Elemental of Fire (I can't work out how to paint this one. Should it be flames or something else?); (10) a Warpfire Dragon because everyone needs a dragon, right?; (11) a Cygor / Cyclops to round off the collection, this is another great model from Meirce Miniatures.

Dark Elf Recruits For The Realm Of Chaos Slaanesh Army

These pictures are from... well, they're all over the place. Roll on Saturday when the official previous go up. These are the models that will be on my Christmas list.

Proxy 40k Armies And The Ghost Of Oldhammer, Or, Every Army A Proxy

It's a no-brainer for me that proxy armies are an obvious choice in 40k. In an entire fantasy universe with millions of planets there should be possibilities that go miles beyond the limited number of army lists provided by GW. 

So I was pleased to see a 'mainstream' blog covering this idea building on the new Space Marines codex. Goatboy over at BoLS provides a number of fun sounding suggestions such as these:

White Scars...I always liked an army full of Horsemen and this would be a great place to start as some kind of Marauding band of Evil Knights. The plastic Chaos Knight set is a great place to start and you can easily add bits to make them more "futuristic" with daemonic steads, evil weaponry and other bits and pieces. Their ability to scout with a Special character could also be used as an Alpha Legion heavy striking force.

Iron Hands... Here you get into the army I think has the most gas in the tank of Counts As. I can see them being used for Iron Warriors because both armies love technology. I really can see people using this as the base army for Adeptus Mechanicus and allying in the Tau to create weapons from the prayers of Mars. I even can see them used as a crazy Death Guard force with their army wide FNP and It Will Not Die on their Characters and vehicles. The Sky is the limit with their chapter set as it feels basic enough to cover lots of options and still give you room to build and design.

Imaginative and independently spirited gamers will of course go far further than this and in that there is nothing revolutionary about these suggestions. To an old fart like me, it's hobby common sense. What really astonishes me, though - and by now it shouldn't - is how dim, ill-tempered, witless, and limiting (I could go on...) the comments on this article are. Never has the Oldhammer spirit been needed so dearly! 

I can only daydream that all these tournament-types are visited in the dead of night by the ghost of Oldhammer*, and that he shows them the error of their ways. Because in my hobbyverse, every army is a proxy army, imagined, built and storied uniquely by its creator. Anything else and it's just... a game.

*I realise this gives the impression that Oldhammer is dead. Forgive me. Clearly this is not the case.

Grumpy Fish Says This Hobby Has Ups And Downs

Maybe it was the second anniversary, perhaps something else; either way I've been pondering rather a lot recently. I think it was something to do with getting ready to photograph all my collection that did it. 

I just suddenly realised the scale of the task in front of me to bring all my models to a level that I aspire too. That actual reality of sprue mountain turned model mountain. That made me put on the blogging breaks for a while, although I'm far more settled now and ready to be more positively reflective.

So nothing much more than a funny picture to share today - normal service to resume tomorrow :-)

Two Years

Thank you to all followers of and visitors to the Gazette over the last two years. Thank you for the comments, the encouragement, and the page views. It's great to be part of this online hobby and gaming community. 

In celebration, the second annual 'Climbing Sprue Mountain' begins tomorrow, where I review (and photograph) my whole collection, and potentially suffer an existential crisis over all the money and time that's been poured into this hobby.

Mierce Miniatures Kermorannac WIP

Say what you like about Mierce Miniatures and their patchy background, they do make some fantastic fantasy models. The Kermorannac is one of their older pre-Kickstarter models and it's bursting with character and - a rare thing these days - humour: the squealing pig is a nice touch and this is the only anatomically correct model in my collection. I'm going all multi-layered and open-ended with this one, so I can enjoy myself and remember the simply joys of this great hobby. 

I'll probably use him as a Cygor in my beastmen army.

Building New Hobbyists: Getting The Kids Painting

I was sad to miss the Oldhammer event this weekend, so I set about doing a few things to make up for it. The first was to spend some time letting my kids join in with my hobby. My son has painted a little before, but it was a first for my daughter, and we all took turns base coating some Chaos Space Marines. I was pretty impressed with the care and attention that they took - just look at the concentration on my daughter's face! I think that when I get the chance I may pick up a few new cheap models - I'm thinking Termagaunts - and see what they can do totally on their own (my son mostly, with a little guidance). Next weekend we'll try some basic gaming.

                   

                 

Dear Fan Boys, Please Stop Breaking The GW Website!

For goodness sake, has the world gone utterly mad? I'm just a casual observer wanting to take a glance at some new toys. From what I can just about see, what's on offer is an almost-exactly-the-same tactical squad, a couple of ok-ish characters, and the weirdest bloody fat Space Marines I've ever seen. Seriously? You want to break the GW site in a stampede for these?!

Oldhammerers, I Wish You Well - Have A Great Weekend

I wish I could join you for what I'm certain will be a great weekend. Looking forward to all the photos and reports. Until next year....

The Army That Won't Parade - Re-Capturing The Slow Hobby Spirit

Sadly, Armies On Parade isn't going to happen for me this year. I found myself over the last week or so getting really anxious about having things at a certain stage and the amount of painting time I had left. 

I also realised that I was starting to paint in ways that I simply didn't want to: ultimately, I was losing my 'slow hobby' spirit and turning leisure into slog. Not a recipe for happiness.

So I returned all my Nurgle folks to their shelf and turned again to picking them off one or two at a time and experimenting away contently, while imagining that I'm a real artist. 

At least the tidying away led to more effectively presented shelves, so, dear reader, please take this humble photograph as a small prelude to my annual 'climbing sprue mountain' posts...