[Malifaux] Run and Hyde, it's avatar Seamus....

Apologies for the bad pun in the title. Here's the new big guy for my gang - turns out Seamus has a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde complex without the Dr Jekyll part...

I've literally been working on this model for about two to three months, but I'm very pleased with how he turned out :) As he's pretty much the centrepiece of the gang, I wanted to spend some time on him. I deliberately painted the tattered rags of clothing in the same colours as the jacket and shirt on my normal Mad Hatter model to tie the two together, and mounted him on a scenic base to make a change from the plain cobblestones I normally go for. I've only really used him in one game, but he was great fun and a joy to get on the table at last. I think I may be using him quite frequently from now on!

And, last but by no means least, I did a quick look through my blog and I'm pretty sure that, despite having had them painted for absolutely ages I never posted these two. So, here they are - a pair of Dead Doxies to add a bit of glamour and razzmatazz to the crew!

As you've probably noticed, I decided to give Photoshop a go to make a change from my table and bookcase as backgrounds. Any verdicts as to whether it's better or worse are greatly appreciated :)

Ben

[Epic] Phantom Titan #2

The second Eldar Phantom titan! Just the Warlock and two Revenants left to paint now, and that'll be all the Eldar titans finished. Despite having two painted now, I've yet to really use them or form a conclusion - I've tried them out in a couple of games, but not really enough to form the bond of love I have with Revenants or the regret-filled ambivalence I have for my Fire Prisms.

I've had a couple of games this week as well - the Eldar took to the field in Epic, ending in a draw leaning towards a defeat, and Seamus led his belles to battle once more in Malifaux, transforming into his Mr Hyde avatar and managing to win the game by achieving both my strategy and both schemes. Now his avatar model is painted, I think he has to go on the blog soon!

Ben

[HC] Riddle me this, Batman...

What do a leading comic book villain, the 'Stealth' power and a lime green suit have in common?

Well, I'm not sure the Riddler would like it, but the answer is nothing! I love the Heroclix Arkham Asylum model for the Riddler, and his powers are frankly great fun in-game too, but his lime green suit has never appealed to me. So, I've repainted him going for a more modern comics interpretation, particularly with the Hush story arc in mind. The suit's a much darker green, offset by a black shirt and the iconic purple tie and gloves. I also redid bits of the cane, and painted the money bags in a darker brown to match the new tone of the model. Might do a bit of reworking at some point, but I'm happy enough with him for now.

 I've also repainted a second Mad Hatter model I bought. Aside from being my favourite character (well, alongside Scarecrow!) in the comics, he's also pretty much my favourite model to use in-game - true to his comic book status, the Mad Hatter can mind control anyone with no penalties to himself, and I've discovered an immense pleasure in taking control of other people's powerhouse pieces and turning them on their own team! With regards to the colour scheme, I decided to repaint him in a blue theme (yeah, I love painting blue) with purple details to dial back the colours for a slightly darker effect. Unlike my Hush-era Riddler above, Tetch isn't really based on any particular comic - if you pressed me for what inspired the blue, I'd have to say a combination of BTAS, and some of the costumes in the Loeb/Sale stories.

Despite everything I do find these models fun to repaint. In other news, I've just realised I still haven't put up my latest Epic painting, so that'll be posted soon! I've also just finished working on some more Malifaux models, and have even picked up the good Doctor McMourning to paint. I was going to base him normally so I can give another Ressurectionist Master a go, but I have just found an amazing scenic base so we'll have to see if he ends up as a display piece or not!

Thanks for reading and enjoy the weekend (or insert whatever time is appropriate for when you're reading this)

Ben

[Epic] Heavy Support for the Corvidae

It's a wet, grey Monday morning, so what better to start the week than a new blog post. 

It's been a pretty eventful week on the games front, so I thought I'd do a quick round-up of the week's victories and defeats. The Wood Elves took to the field again and fared rather well, going up against Lizardmen and earning a solid win through various flank charges, the Treeman being his usual bad-ass self and my Spellweaver managing to Dwellers the Slaan below the forest floor before Tree Kin and Dryads started rampaging through the Lizardmen flanks. I also got in a 4k game of Epic with the nearly-painted Thousand Sons, which ended in a 2-1 in favour of the Eldar after various brutal assaults and the Vampire Raiders roaring in with amaizng pin-point attacks. And finally, my Void took to the Heroclix field again and won a 600pt game with the help of the Riddler and Loki.

On the painting front, it's been a bit more mixed this week as I broke up the tiny trim with some larger models. I've finished my armour formation of Predators, as well as painting a sorcerer to lead my disc riders.

Also, I've got some new models! Direct from America, these 'scuttlers' should work well as Defilers and sit perfectly on a 2p piece as a base. They'll be up on the blog sometime soon...

And finally, I've been working on some more heavy hitters. I've finished the second Oracle-pattern Warphound titan for my Thousand Sons, with a bit more adventurous attempted freehand on a sunburst pattern on one shoulder pad.

Hopefully I'll have some more Malifaux models done for the next blog post, and will finally post that Riddler I think I've mentioned before - especially after he did so well in the latest Heroclix game!

Thanks for reading,

Ben 

[Review] I am the Law!

I went to see Dredd 3D with some friends last Sunday, and thought I might as well do a spoiler free write-up here in case anyone is thinking of going to see it. And I'll even keep it short!

Picture (C) DNA films 2012

Coming at this as someone who has never been closer to Dredd than the old Adeptus Arbites models, I quite enjoyed this. The film opens with a fast-paced chase as Dredd rockets after a group of criminals on his bad-ass bike that actually rivals Batman's bike from The Dark Knight. We're then introduced to the second main character of the film, Olivia Thirby's Judge Anderson - a rookie with psychic powers about to be evaluated by the senior Judge Dredd. A routine investigation into a triple homicide quickly turns sour when they raid a tower block controlled by the infamous criminal overlord Ma-Ma - who, upon realising that Dredd and Anderson have arrested a lieutenant who will squeal under interogation, locks down the tower and sends her army of drug enforcers to kill the Judges.

The film sets out to deliver an action-packed closeted environment thriller, and it certainly succeeds. One of the strengths of the film that impressed me was that it never seemed to aspire to anything else - it knows it's an action film and revels in this, rather than trying to shoehorn in additional themes. The gunplay is very well done, and surprisingly spaced out between dialogue, exploration of Judge Anderson and the intrepid pair trying to turn things to their advantage such as getting outside to radio for backup. Both Karl Urban (Dredd) and Olivia Thirby deliver good performances in the circumstances, keeping a dry approach to dialogue without it boring the viewer. I also have to throw in a mention for the retro look the costumes and, in particular, the tech the Judges use got - I love that! The music helps build the atmosphere but isn't anything special by itself, and the 3D effects are actually well done, especially at the end (which I won't spoil for you).

So, the all-important conclusion - would I recommend it? If you're looking for around two hours of action, this is certainly the film to see. Just don't go in expecting it to change your outlook on life or fundamental beliefs, and take it as a well-done adaption of a classic dystopian British comic. I'm not sure if I'll bother to pick up the DVD, but I'm definitely glad I went to see it.

3/5

Oh, and I now so want this!

[Epic] We are legion!

It's been a long week, so it's been nice to just kick back at the weekend and paint some models. Ok, who am I kidding - I've been worrying about work like the workaholic I am. But I did still do some painting!

I've finished another formation of Thousand Sons, and a formation of Rubric Terminators. But as I'm sure you won't want to just see more pictures of another formation a lá the last few weeks, I thought I'd do a whole shot of all the Thousand Son and Rubric Terminator formations I've done!

The latest formation. I only realised after I took the picture that I forgot some of the gold trim on the Rhinos - this has now been fixed!

Four formations of Thousand Sons and three formations of Rubric Terminators.

I'm pretty happy with how that's all looking. I want to do a whole army shot including all the painted armour, titans etc. but that will have to wait until the board is out. Having said that, I've got a game booked against Gus of Epic Addiction, so I'll let you know how that goes and try to take a few shots as the Thousand Sons may well be taking to the table with nearly all (do we dare hope all?) of the units painted! I never thought I'd see the day... ;)

Other than that, I've been working on a few more models for next time - yes, I'm starting to perfect the habit of painting stuff in advance for this blog - and was going to put up another Heroclix model, but I forgot. Will try and remember to shoot him next time! Talking of Heroclix models, I'm now after a Judge Dredd model after seeing the movie. Possible review time...

Ben

[Epic] The rising darkness

So, here we go at last - my latest Epic objective marker! I love making these things...

A bit of backstory - about a year ago I bought a job lot of Epic eldar off of eBay, which included about 10 of the old Epic-scale chaos androids. I've heard of them being used as necrons before, and while I never had an inclination to start a third Epic army, my brain immediately focused on a way to use them - as an objective marker for a buried Necron tomb beginning to wake up! I imagine that it works as an objective for any army, although particularly for eldar (who would naturally want to close it down ASAP) and maybe even my Thousand Sons - I reckon some over-inquisitive sorcerer would love a poke around in a centuries-old tomb!

It literally took me around a year to turn this idea into a practical reality, but it's finally finished. I'm personally really proud of it - for those long-time readers among you who remember back that far it doesn't top my Imperial dig site for me personally, but it's a very close second! The model is made from plasticard for the tomb, with modroc sculpted over a scaffold-like framework of old sprue pieces for the earth. The ornamentations on the tomb are made from parts of a 40K destroyer, and as mentioned the necrons themselves are the old chaos androids. It's certainly the most complex objective I've converted to date - I probably should have done some WIP shots - but it should look great on the battlefield. It was a nightmare to photograph though, so I might try and re-do the shots later on.

And to break up the Epic-ness of this blog of late while still keeping on the darkness theme, here's a quick shot of one of the Heroclix models I've repainted! I didn't think his teeth looked anywhere near big, sharp or scary enough when I got this model, so one black wash and some skull white highlighting later, voila!

I'm working on some more Thousand Sons right now, but there are some Epic eldar models on my desk as well right now - so don't worry, they haven't been forgotten!

Thanks for reading, comments are greatly appreciated :)

Ben

[Epic] Rubric Terminators

Two posts in one week, who would've thought it!

Continuing on the trend of the little guys, I've been working through more epic-scale Thousand Sons in preparation for whenever I can next get a game in. I've taken a slight break from regular marines, so let's have some of their considerably more armoured cousins...

Epic-scale Rubric terminators! These guys were actually great fun to paint and much easier than the regular Rubric marines, as the larger models and armour meant that the ubiquitous gold trim wasn't as bad. I've also only modelled three Terminators to each stand, which probably helped as well - five looked very crowded with their bulky armour, so three sets a good compromise and makes them stand out from the Rubric marines more. I'm still undecided on how to use them in-game (that's why I have about 5 formations of them...), as they're a bit pricey to be dedicated anti-artillery. I'm currently thinking of dropping them in to lead / support an assault, as their 3+ firefight and 2 4+ combat attacks (one of which is macro!) mean that they're still good whether the enemy decides to counter-charge into b2b or not. Continuing that idea, they should do very well at the front of an assault to ensure that the regular Rubric marines aren't counter-charged and so use their FF value rather than their combat, as the Terminators don't really care whether they're in firefight or combat.

Stay tuned for more Epic development - I haven't forgottern about that new objective marker I promised last time, and to be honest I'm so excited to show it to you I may well just put it up on the blog later this weekend!

Ben

[Epic] Thousand Sons and daemonic allies

Do I have low view counts beause I don't post enough, or do I not post enough due to low view counts? Anyway, I'm back! Apologies for the long absence, but I really haven't been getting much done in the way of wargaming - since Malifaux took over, my spend has gone down to pretty much one or two blisters a month because I spend so long painting each model! However, after a Vassal game of Epic against Gus, I've been focusing more on the little guys to get some more done on them. So what's new in the ranks?

I've fully painted my third formation of regular Thousand Sons! The tiny gold trim isn't getting any easier to paint, but it is getting more bearable - for this formation a combination of Stephen Fry and Pendulum (not at the same time) got me through. I've still got at least another 3 if not 4 or more formations to paint, but it's nice to get through them :)

And, to break up the painting schedule....

I've painted my first seven stands of Flamers! I can't remember if I ever put up pictures of my 40k scale Flamers on here, but they're painted in the same way of alternating blues and reds. I did the fire in green to try and give it a sorcerous look, and because I do firmly believe that in painting this sort of scale you need contrast - so red fire wouldn't really do it. So that's another 14 FF4+ attacks to join the fray!

Stay tuned for another post later this week - I've got the Rhinos for the above formation to do, as well as some of the heavy hitters and a new objective marker - cryptic!

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Float like a butterfly, carry like a schoolbus - the Eldar Wave Serpent (in 6mm!)

Transports have been a quintessential part of the 40k universe for as long as I can remember - in fact, one of the first battle reports I remember reading in White Dwarf featured every tank the studio had at the time, with rhinos and chimeras abound. I know they were a major player in 40K fifth edition, but let's have a look at them in Epic Armageddon, where the field of battle is considerably larger, and our troop's legs are considerably shorter...

As in 40K, the Wave Serpent reigns as the king of transports. Weighing in at 5 times the cost of a Rhino, it's by no means cheap - but you do get what you pay for. First, let's consider the main reason anyone takes transports. Able to hold two stands of Guardians or Aspect Warriors, the Wave Serpent offers considerable manouverability with a speed of 35cm and the 'skimmer' rule, helping it traverse rivers, rocks and (sorry Gus) trench lines with ease. Marching a squadron can propell them across the board to set up a second turn assault, and I've used this speed more than once to redeploy them and leave enemy units without a target.

Of course, even the Eldar can't rely on mobility alone to keep them safe, and this is where the Holofields come in. By bumping their 5+ save to a reinforced roll, this dramatically increases the chance of a Wave Serpent surviving at least small arms fire, although you shouldn't rely on it or expect it to hold out against any serious firepower (something you'd think I would have learnt by now!).

This leads me on to my first downside about the Wave Serpent, and that's how quickly the formation can fall apart. While it's untouched it is a major threat, offering an effective 55cm engage range, often with the Aspect Warrior formation. However, once Wave Serpents start getting shot down you'll often find yourself with stands of infantry stuck outside, either slowing the formation down to their 15cm crawl or forcing you to abandon that stand of Dire Avengers. While this is a problem with all transports, I feel that the Wave Serpents suffer more than most due to their normal levels of speed and manouverability - something which the Eldar army as a whole relies on, and can't really afford to lose. However, effective use of cover and a bit of luck (so your autarch doesn't end up outside a Wave Serpent!) can minimse the risks - leading me back to my point about not relying on the 5+ reinforced save!

Finally, it'd be wrong to end this without mentioning the shuriken cannons. Never my favourite weapon in 40K, they come into their own in Epic, turning a transport in a valuable support weapon when in an assualt. The 30cm range means they can take a shot to lay blast markers etc. if you're not ready to assault, and the additional Firefight 4+ from each Wave Serpent when engaged can often help to swing assaults in your favour. Again, it's not something I rely on, but it's certainly worth thinking about.

So, all in all, the Epic-scale Wave Serpent still holds a special place in my heart. Most of my lists tend to start around a 600pt Aspect Warrior formation, and I firmyl believe that the Wave Serpent is a staple in most Eldar forces.

I hope that my experinces with tiny Wave Serpents have been of some interest, and I'll try and do something similar next week as I've got some more epic units I wouldn't mind extolling the virtunes of!

Ben

Something wicked this way comes

And what could be more wicked than an alternate model for Seamus the Mad Hatter?



Sorry for the dodgy Photoshop work, I wanted to give it a go and get away from the usual wood backdrop I go for.

It's been a bit of a quiet week on the modelling front really. I had my first few games in a 40K mini campaign at my local club, which resulted in my Thousand Sons being thrashed once and winning the second game. It's surprisingly hard to build a well-rounded 500pt list when your basic infantry is so expensive! Still, I'm allowed 700pts this week, so I'm hoping to fit in a few goodies as well as the must-have force org slots. I also got in another demo game of Malifaux, this time ajudicating which was good fun. Been catching up on podcasts and forum stuff as well, which has made me really gutted that I'm introducing this to people too late to really participate in the Dead Heat campaign. Next time...

I've been trying to work up the enthusiasm to paint some other models as well, with little success - I've started my eCaine for Warmachine, who I'm doing in a very Mal-Reynolds-esque colour scheme, and managed to get one colour on my epic Storm Serpent. Still, hopefully I'll get a bit further on them this week. I've been a bit distracted waiting for my latest Malifaux order to arrive, but I'm going to force myself to paint other stuff as well!

I managed to get through the week without breaking any car batteries or anything (though the CD player still doesn't work and has eaten one of my girlfriend's Lady Gaga CD's).

Quite a short and picture-light blog post for once. Stay tuned next week for more Thousand Sons shennanigans, more tales from the Breach and (with any luck) some shiny new models!

Thanks for reading,

Ben

Falling off the blogwagon...

Ok, I admit it. I failed in my new year's resolution to keep regularly updating this. In my defence, I have been working out more and learning Italian, so two out of three isn't that bad. Vorrei un insalata mista per favore! 


To be perfectly honest, the continued low number of views, etc. sort of disheartened me. But I have been missing the writing bug, so I will try and keep this going, especially as I know some people do read it. I wouldn't want to abandon my obligations! 


So what's new since I last posted. Last time I was prattling on about my Wood Elves and the first few weeks of the campaign. That's now finished, with the asrai finishing in a very respectable joint third (I think - it was a few weeks ago now). I learnt that massed bowfire is killer, that eagles are essential and that daemons are brutal against wood elves ;) 


Moving on now, I'm now fully devoted to the Lancaster soulstone trade - yes, it's the love of my gaming life Malifaux! I ran my first demo game last week, which seemed to go pretty well - both the guys are interested in playing it again this week, so that's a plus. I have to confess that in my nervous state and my attempted focus on the basic rules and making it fun, I did forget quite a few of the special rules - hard to wound, armour, you know, nothing important :P If you're reading this, sorry Tom - I'll do better this week! Still, it's all a learning curve, and as this was my first time demoing anything I'm fairly satisfied with how it's going. 


On the painting side, I've done a lot since I last posted, so here are the highlights (pun not intended): 

Turns out Seamus doesn't just like 'em dead - these two foxy nurses have joined the ranks of his crew! The clean medical green scrubs were great fun to paint. The white gloves and boots on a black undercoat, not so much ;)

Seamus' two best friends - Molly Squidpidge (in a decidedly Alice-esque costume!) and the Copycat Killer.

Sonnia Criid gets backup too in the form of the Guild Executioner.

And my third (*ahem*) gang is painted! The Governor's secetary Lucius Mattheson joins the fray to pursue his own nefarious agenda.

In other news, I played with my wind band in proms on Saturday night, which was absolutely amazing. Loved every minute of it, especially my four saxophone solos :) That's it now until the start of the next academic year, so I'm kind of sad. Trying to take this break from wind band as motivation to actually record and refine some of my own compositions at last. My car also broke down when the battery finally gave up, so buying the new one sort of barred me from any luxury purchases this month. 


As to when this'll be updated, I don't think Friday worked well for any of us. I'll try for Monday from now on (but don't expect one tomorrow lol, I don't paint that fast!) 


Ben

It's the rule of the most recently painted

It's been a good week for the Wood Elves. I've finally finished painting my 2000pt force, so I'll try and get some pictures of the whole army up soon. For now, here's the unit I've been working on all week, the wardancers:

Wardancers

Unfortunately you can't really see on the picture (I need a better camera), but the tattoos were, unsurprisingly, my least favourite part. Thankfully, it didn't take me long to realise that a small curvy line or two on the torso accompanied by a tattoo outlining the eye, the cheekbones etc. on the face is far more effective (for my painting level, at least) than trying some intricate design. All in all, I'm pleased with how they look, and will try to get a shot of the whole army up over the weekend.

My asrai also took to the field of battle again, this time going up against the hordes of undead led by Heinrich Kemmler and his fiendish bodyguard Krell. The first two turns were calamitous for the wood elves, with the undead hordes being propelled forward by Vanhel's Danse Macabre, the dryads under performing and the wardancers panicking off the table before they even saw combat. To make matters worse, my usually reliable Spell Weaver miscast twice, blowing up most of a glade guard unit and failing to really cast any spells.

Things turned around in turn 3, when Kemmler experienced the same dimensional cascade as my Spell Weaver - only in his case, he failed to stop himself being dragged into the realm of chaos. With the undead army substantially slowed down and starting to crumble, the asrai surged forward with renewed vigour. I managed to position my remaining glade guard to create a fire lane against the remaining skeletons, and by turn 5 the table had been completely cleared of undead for a wood elf victory. Special mention must go to the treeman and tree kin, who both performed way beyond my wildest dreams. The tree kin led the charge from the beginning, smashing through the undead lines to take out two blocks of skeletons and end up behind the remaining undead forces for some timely flank and rear charges, while the Treeman racked up an impressive kill total of a Terrorgheist, a Mortis Engine, two units of skeletons and Krell himself. It was certainly a hard game but a fun one, and it feels good to have my first Wood Elf victory in 8th under my belt.

So, what's up next week? Despite painting my full 2000pt list I've still got a couple of heroes and a unit of glade riders I want to paint. There's also the opportunity to hire dogs of war in this campaign, so I've been working on Bronzino's Galloper Guns. And, of course, I feel I've neglected Malifaux for far too long. So yeah, it could be anything next week! I'll certainly be playing a couple more games with the Wood Elves, so will let you know how it goes.

Thanks for reading, please feel free to comment :)

Ben x

The forest goes to war

It's all started this week! The boundaries are set, the armies are readied, battle-plans drawn and nefarious alliances made in the shadows - the campaign has started.

I've managed to completely blow my goal out of the water, which I'm pretty proud of, with only the wardancers and the actual banner on my BSB unpainted ('cos I'm scared of trying that sort of freehand!). Before we get into how my asrai actually fared on the tabletop, I thought I'd throw up some pictures of what I got done this week.

The Battle Standard Bearer. At the moment I've chickened out of doing any detail on the banner - still not sure if I want to give it a go myself (freehand, not my forte) or just get someone with a bit more practice to :P

16 more Glade Guard. There's two command groups because the smaller group of 6 at the back will become another unit of 10 as soon as I get more.

The Glade Guard.

Close-up of the sprites on the standard.

So, this week's campaign game was a 2000pt match-up against Tom's Daemons. After a close-fought game with Dryads springing up like daisies thanks to Regrowth, my as-yet unpainted Wardancers chopping through Nurgle spawn and Flesh Hounds running riot throughout my lines, it ended in a very close draw, which I'm rather happy with. I've now managed to fortify my territory, which means I'll get an extra 20% points to spend when I'm defending them. In honour of this, I've ordered a mounted wood elf lord and am planning to paint up my Glade Riders so they can plausibly pass as Wild Riders. Plus, after their sterling performance, the Wardancers definitely deserve some paint now! My poor Malifaux gangs might have to hold on another week at this rate...

So, watch out for more campaign shenanigans and wood elves next week! I'm facing off against the hordes of the undead this time - I'm beginning to doubt my dryads will ever make anyone fail (or even roll) a fear test ;)

Ben x

The elves prepare for war

Well, I've managed to meet (or actually, smash) my aim with over 1400pts of my Wood Elves painted, and the remaining 526pts well on the way to completion. The campaign starts next Wednesday, and so begins my attempt to carve out my little corner of the Old World - or, perhaps more apporpiately (and likely), sit in my starting tile of Athel Loren and desparetly try to defend it against the encroaching invaders.

Anyway, away from such gloomy tidings and onto the beauty of newly-painted elves and their forest spirit allies!

More Dryads! The sixteen I painted this week, making a total of twenty-four.

Close-up of the detail. In contrast to the Treeman / Tree Kin, I wanted the Dryads to look more like willow or silver birch to emphasise the lithe speed.

Close-up of Dryad unit #2.

Skaw and his birds make a welcome return! Even though they almost inevitably die, I love my Great Eagles.

A close-up of Skaw. I've always felt that there's nothing wrong with the model, but the paint job it was given by GW back when it was released. I went for a much more muted brown colour scheme to emphasise his feral nature and to try and make him look a bit darker. I'm rather pleased with how he turned out - just need an excuse to use him in-game now!

I'll keep you updated on how the campaign's going as well as the progress of the Wood Elves, although I am missing painting my beloved Malifaux models - not helped by the arrival of these two foxy ladies in the post today...

As usual, thank you for reading and all comments are appreciated! Except spam bots, that is ;)

Ben x

The spellweavers of Athel Loren

Hi again everyone, or welcome if this is your first time :)

It's been a bit of a slow week - a combination of good weather, busy work and a lack of sand to base models meant I didn't really get that many models done. I did spend most of my painting time doing all the details on my Wood Elf Spell Weaver, who'll be leading my asrai in the upcoming campaign. I'm really quite happy with how she turned out - I went for a reverse colour scheme, with the greens and browns taking a back seat to the blue to make her stand out without being radically different. Comments always appreciated!

After running out of basing sand last Sunday, I (finally) managed to pick some up yesterday, so have been basing my remaining dryads and wardancers with a mind to painting them next. I have, however, just received my first demo gang for when I start demoing Malifaux - Lady Justice and her Death Marshalls - so we'll have to see if I can resist the lure of painting them! There's just something about painting individuals and warbands that appeals to me more than rank-and-file. I could never do a horde army :) The other thing, I think, is the price. It's so much cheaper to buy a new Malifaux model for a fiver and feel like I've really made a difference in my gang; whereas I'll end up spending at least four times that on a new unit for Warhammer, which may not make as much difference in a 2000-odd point game (or at least it seems that way!). This also may explain why I have far more asrai heroes than I'll ever use...

Other than that, things have been as normal. Played a game of Battlefleet Gothic on Wednesday, during which my Eldar got their pointy ears absolutely thrashed - but managed to actually destroy one of the chaos ships for a change, so that's a step forward. I've discovered that BFG is a game I am truly terrible at ;) Also went out to see the Hunger Games at the cinema, which I enjoyed more than I thought I would. I'd seen Battle Royale before, and to be honest aside from the teenagers-killing-each-other there weren't too many similarities; or at least few enough that I was able to enjoy THG as a separate film in it's own right.

Thanks for reading my wargaming-come-life-in-general-come-film-review-now blog; as always, any comments are greatly appreciated.

Ben x

They're coming out of the goddamn trees!

Double whammy post tonight! If you want to scroll down, I've got another Malifaux battle report - this time in a narrative style! Please take a look :)

On the painting side of things this week, I've managed to curtail the Malifaux obsession by trying to remember that, much as I want to paint Lucius, I need to get some more of my Wood Elves done of the campagin. So, I've finished a hero (who knew Aenur was actually a wood elf? :P), painted all three Tree Kin and nearly finished my Spell Singer. So, pictures as usual! (except for the Spell Singer - I want to save her until she's finished)

The whole lot.

Who knew Aenur was a wood elf? :P Seriously, I've always loved the model and this was a perfect chance to actually use him. I wanted to go for a more muted colour scheme in contrast to the green wood elves - plus, this way he'll still fit in if I ever need to use him in Mordheim.

Close-up of one of the Tree Kin. I'm still undecided as to whether these were fun or a nightmare to paint...

A second Tree Kin. I wanted the model to be predominately bark, with sharp con trast on the foliage, leaves, sprites etc., and I think it turned out well. In my eyes, anyway ;)

The Tree Kin were my first foray into the new Finecast, and despite the internet hate I have to say I found it perfectly fine. It probably helps that I chose models with no flat surfaces whose very nature is rugged and rough, but the joins were smooth and the flash - while there was lots of it - wasn't a problem to remove. Plus, as far as I know Tree Kin are the only models to actually get a price drop when they went from metal to Finecast, so that's a plus :)

Thanks again for reading - please have a look at the report below and let me know what you think! It was certainly fun to write for pleasure again, I haven't done that anywhere near enough since uni.

Hope you're all well, and any comments are always appreciated.

Ben x