Wednesday 26 June 2013

Praedis Zeta - done and dusted!

Well, as those that bother reading this blog will have know, last weekend was the WH40K campaign PtII of Vidars Fate known as Praedis Zeta.
Set 400 years after Darkfall, the planet Praedis Zeta which officially was under Imperium Rule, had an active Magus (descendant of the ruler of Darkfall) who was causing a few issues on the hive homeworld of the Imperius Reaver Space Marine Chapter. Mutated locals, psychic anomalies and tendrils from a far out looming threat were within reach.

The two sides clashed - those fighting for the Reavers to maintain control and eradicate the threat, and those there to sew disarray and allow the Magus to reign control and carry out his plans.

Although the sides would be quite clear as to what armies fight for what sides, GW does not have the resources to control the player count and the armies that attend. This means that you can easily get a Nid army on the Imperius Reaver side, and Space Wolves on the Magus side. A fact that is a little annoying from the fluff perspective, but in all honesty, its still good fun games of 40k regardless of that fact.
As it happened, all of my friends (The Staines Invaders) arrived in force with bout 15 of us in total sporting a variety of armies but we all like the way John Bracken narrates for his side. As he was the Magus, my forces of Imperial Fists found themselves on his side!

So over 5 great games with a set of mixed results with a draw, 2 losses and 2 wins, how was the weekend? It was AWESOME.
As always GW event staff deliver great and getting better each time events now. The core team really are delivering a great weekend of gaming set to an interesting background for good measure.

The quiz night was also great with a stunning new round called "Say what you see"

So take the following pictures and you get my drift



Thats  bolt plus an ER giving Bolter!


Anyway the more important bits were the award ceremony of course. Having fought hard in the games, some rewards were due in.
The Staines Team had another good haul. The scary thing is, we are not voting for our own stuff or on the whole each others. I am sure if the voting was shown at the end who did vote for who, many people would be surprised. I vote for what I feel is the best on display in each category. 

There were 7 armies shortlisted for best army - which all got displayed in the glass cabinets around the hall. 5 of those came from Staines. This is something I am very proud of. The guys painting have come on leaps and bounds over the years I have been there and to see new faces getting in those cabs and getting their certificates is great to see. Alas none of us won the top prize, it went to a lovely Chaos Army. Boo hiss!
The individual model prizes were also another good haul
We took best single fig, best monstrous, best special unit for the campaign, and best vehicle - my Spartan! That left best fortification, army list and superheavy still not in our grasp alas!

Finally the special mentions. Myself and my doubles partner Dave were awarded the outstanding contribution to a gaming event for our side. I was quite touched by this. Apparently not being a beardy twat with your Titans in an Apoc game goes down well! Ie, regenerating shields, and using the asset to bring it back when it dies is considered sporting, and taking the game in the true spirit of Apoc carnage with Warhounds going nuclear and killing hundreds of points of models both friendly and enemy was always good fun! of course, still winning the game counts too...hahaha
One of our players was also the most sporting, winning 6/7 fave game results from his, which was great to see. 

So another classy weekend, the third in the series is in November, so roll on!


I'll leave this one with you, only 1 team got this right!




Monday 10 June 2013

Celebrity follower - Spud!

Just checked my amazing 8 followes of this blog and saw Spud is there. Just spent some time today watching the coverage of the Beast of War Grumpy Convention in which he makes an appearance on Warrens YouTube panel select committee!

Thanks for tuning in Spud - of perhaps clicking on a dodgy link and ending up here for the infrequent meanderings of a FW'aholic.

Cheers

HwG

Imperial Fist Tyranid Hunters

With the forthcoming campaign at WHW in just 2 weeks, we get to use a free unit as part of the campaign.

The pack details are located at the home of Pradeis Zeta in GW's events pages.

So, an excuse to model up something slightly different, and in an effort to try and get a shortlist on the painting front again, I came up with this little number for my unit of Nid Hunters.

Basically for those not following the link, you get 5 Marines inc a Sarge, with Hypnoth Pattern Bolters - normal ones with an additional fire mode of 18" S3 AP- blast.
The unit comes with Pref Enemy Nids/Hybrids to boot, and the Sarge can swap his bolter for a power weapon.

Alternatively you can take a unit of Nid Hybrids with a Magus. ON paper they are actually the more useful of a unit, but we shall see in reality.
Neither unit can take objectives etc, its an excuse to paint something interesting.


Here is my unit




Well well well! Its done and dusted!

So the Reaver is now another monkey off my back at last.
3 months of painting and the project is all done (although things are never fully done eh - I want to add weapon banners at some point.
Also technically there are some cables to connect the heavy arm cannons to the plasma reactor core at the rear. But as they are magnetised to switch out, this makes them a little tricky to apply, but I may make those magnetic as well.

Both the Reaver and Warhound have even seen some battle recently, although their actual usefulness was a comparison to an ashtray on a motorbike...

Anyway, its piccie time!


Finished Reaver then as promised!


And a comparison to his smaller brother




So how did they do in a recent Apoc game? 
They arrived on Turn 2
They killed between them 14 Marines, damaged a Land Raider, killed 4 Carnifexes, and about 20 Tau Pathfinders.
Then the Warhound was hit by a Farsight "Bomb" with him, and seven Crisis Suits totting Fusion Guns, which made short work of him.
The Reaver was killed by the combined fire of a Phantom Titan, 3 Vindicators, a Daemon Shell D Shot, 3 Vendettas and 3 Sentinels.

The realism of using such models is not as cool as it sounds....but they look TOTES AMAZEBALLS!









Thursday 2 May 2013

More progress but no photos

More progress but no photos


So another few hours spent on the Reaver last night.
The gold trim is now complete on all the leg sections which meant I could test fit the lower shin armour around the piston guards. Its a bit tight given the pose but works all ok and lines up with each knee guard too.

The next step is to complete the toe pistons (2 per toe meaning 16!), cut them to the right sizes, paint and glue to position.
Annoyingly the toe pistons have to be positioned and glued at the same time as the piston guards, which also have to be adjusted ant cut to size. Tricksy but not impossibly difficult.

Once these are all in place, the lower leg armour and rear knee pistons can be attached, and finally the thighs and hip section can be glued in place.

So although alot of work is happening, its still in lots of pieces! BUt its one of those things that suddenly comes together in a matter of a couple of hours once the sum of the parts are done.

I think thats a good 8 hours work there to do right.

Am off on vacation for a week so my rough timetable now looks like.

3-10 May - Vacation
11-12 May - Finish leg parts, final painting touches and assembly from toes to hip
13-17 May - Interior detailing inc Tech Adept
19 May - Cockpit and crew
20-24 May - Gattling Blaster arm, Titan Laser Blaster arm
25 May - Main canopy detail scroll work and icons
27 May - Large armour plating (shoulders, under belly and top cover), Apoc Launcher turret
28-31 May - Final detailing and weathering, Basing

In the remaining time, my plan is also complete 5 MkIV Marines, a Wraithseer and anything else quickly...hopefully I have a good 2 weeks or so to achieve this...might be tricky but thats the hobby challenge!

10-14 June - Work trip


21 June To War!

Monday 29 April 2013

3 posts

And finally

Three posts in a day eh? Whats the world coming to.

Anyway as hinted in the previous update, what have I been doing in order to try and win my next award at WHW's second 2013 campaign weekend Vidars Fate: Praedis Zeta.

Of course it can only be the Warhounds bigger brother the Reaver Titan.

Intese painting and assembly over the past few weeks in order to get this up to standard to get a chance of winning the award -not that I am competitive in anyway - oh no :P - has lead to this stage so far. The deadline is the weekend of the event 21/22 June, so about 8 weeks time. IN that I am away with work and on hols next week, so that cuts down time dramatically, plus I have a few other infantry sized models to complete before the weekend! Going to be tight, going to piss the wife off significantly, but needs must :)

So the Reaver...
The paint job is identical to that of the Warhound - Legio Astorum "Warp Runners". Same painting techniques, same skills, just a biggggggggg model.

Here is the steps to date, note very little is glued at this time to allow all the painting to be completed properly. plus the parts are so big in most cases you need to break the model right up in to stages and components for ease of handling!


Secondly....

Secondly....


2. Attended Warhammer Worlds Vidars Fate: Darkfaill campaign with 16 other gamers from our local GW store in Staines.

For those unfamiliar with campaigns, they are team narrative based events where results are across the team rather than pure individual outcomes thus less tournament like and very friendly

Photos available on Facebook here
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.590826644270153.1073741846.212614545424700&type=3


The net result in gaming terms from a personal perspective was 1 loss, 3 wins and a draw which was not a bad 2 day effort using my Eldar forces.

In addition I got some painting kudos as well with a shortlist to best army nomination and a win on the best single infantry figure - the Hero of Legend award.
Cheesy pic!


This adds to last Novembers campaign haul where again best army nomination and Engine of Legend for having the best vehicle.

I lost out on best superheavy to a friends Harlequin painted Phantom Titan. Am hoping to obtain that next time in June with my current project - see next post :)
Never seen a Harlie Phantom?! Now you have!


Ummm yeah....how longs it been?!

Ummm yeah....how longs it been?!


Once again a huge chunk of time has passed since I was last updating this blog. I give no apology, i'm just crap and very busy.

Anyway, since the last update whats happened on hobbyville?

1. Finished the Warhound Titan!


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Thursday 10 January 2013

Hmmmm! Welcome to 2013!


So its been a couple more weeks again and nothing on here, so time for an update.
I have now gotten over a bad cold, the wife had Norovirus and spent the festive period revisiting the contents of her stomach and hobby time was dramatically reduced!

So just a normal Christmas here then.

Back into the hobby before yet another break due to vacation, and the base of the Warhound is taking shape. I have also commenced work on the Princeps as well as the insides of the Techmarine area and all that jazz.
A little late to the party I have an amateur mistake to admit - 2 parts were missing! A central door and the lift platform. So after waiting for FE to get back to work, a call into them has them being cast up and sent over. Nothing that halts painting or build time really, so not a show stopper as I await the postal delivery of these components.

A fair bit of time doing pistons was done as well, especially the zillion ankle ones, which are completed and added onto the model now.

So a few piccies to keep you going
1. The piston prep area

2. The base build

2. The base primed
4. The base with legs show after pinning