Finally achieved a 16 year old goal.

Now that my Daemons have reached, and passed, the 3000 point mark in both Warhammer and 40k my purchases have tended towards the esoteric side rather than with the intention to expand the army further.
With my plastic fimir purchases last week along with a old, old style daemonettes for use as heralds ( not the sexy six boobed old daemonettes, but the previous generation of big clawed ugly daemonettes) i've developed a fondness for classic Citadel mini's from my early days in the hobby.
And this week i've achieved the goal of owning a mini i have wanted since my very earliest days playing Warhammer: an old style metal Bloodthirster.

Back when i first started the game, i used to play with the friend who got me interested in the hobby at lunchtimes at school. Back then i had no real clue of the rules, we mostly made things up as we went but it was some of the most entertaining gaming i've ever played. And Ewok if you somehow are reading this, thanks for getting me addicted to the plastic crack.

One of the elements i faced in these early days was a old metal Bloodthirster, predating the current model by many, many years. I always wanted one of my own, but by the time i had the cash available to buy one they were long since out of production and were soon to be replaced by the first incarnation of the current design - a kit i fully intend to buy as soon as it gets the finecast treatment and no longer requires an engineering degree to assemble but i digress.

So i pretty much abandoned hopes of owning one as i went about my various armies. 16 years later one popped up on Ebay for the bargain (well in my head anyway) price of £6.42. So i snapped it up and today it arrived in the post.

The old kit comes in just five pieces. At the time there were several different head options you could order with the model, i've managed to snag one that looks a lot like the Bloodletters of the day, which will make it fit in with the khornate models i have in my army.


Here is the brute assembled. While he lacks the dynamic poses of current minis i still love the model and i am thrilled to finally have it in my collection. I'll be cracking open the Mechadendrite Red tonight to get started on giving it a paint job.

Another new addition to my daemon collection, albeit one that i'm less enthused by for reasons i'll detail below is an old style metal pink horror.


Another nice old sculpt that i really like, so why the lack of enthusiasm you ask. Well i am pretty much certain that it's a counterfeit. Several areas of detail are lacking, and the large mold lines point to a less than profession casting process. This in its own could be attributed to its age but the model also completely lacks the standard copyright mark and date on its slotta tab and the metal just seems to be a much lower quality than was present at the time of its casting.

So this has left me in a quandry. It's possible the seller sold it unaware of its counterfeit nature, but given the amount of old style models they have available for auction i find this hard to believe. In which case should i let Ebay and Games Workshop know that these counterfeits are on sale? Really would value the input of the interwebs as to their opinion of what to do. In the meantime the model will remain unpainted and loose in its base while i decide what action i should take.


Rather than end this blog post on a low note, i'll post my latest acquisition for Warmachine, Narn from the Retribution of Scyrah range. I've been picking up the occasional Scyrah model here and there as a secondary force to give me a change from my Menoth. I'm really not fond of the Scyrah 'jacks so it'll be an infantry based army, which contrasts with my 'jack heavy Menoth.

And speaking of Warmachine i finally got my first game in at a gaming store in St. Helens called Scotrocks. Predictably i got my ass handed to me, but i did achieve my standard moral victory of killing at least one model, in this instance a Khador Widowmaker.

I sorely underestimated just how brutal Khador 'jacks can be and i need to get used to the more micromanagement based gameplay of Warmachine rather than the more macro based WFB and 40k.

But despite my Menoths pummeling i'm looking forward to a rematch next week and this time i'm killing at least two Khadorite scumbags and scratching the paint of a 'jack or two or i'll be eating my steampunk hat!

Long Lasting Batteries My Arse...

I was planning on posting a battle report today of my fight against a lovely Sisters of Battle army last night at the Liverpool vets night. Unfortunately after a single photo the bloomin' batteries on my camera ran out, leaving me stuck without anything to illustrate the game.

Suffice to say i got my backside kicked somewhat, a lucky shot took out my Soul Grinder on the first turn removing my primary anti-tank unit. Then the two exorcists hiding at the back of the board proceeded to pulverise my Flamers over the course of two turns.
Thankfully my Bloodletters gave me a chance to fight back, single handedly dismantling a rhino, two chimeras, two squads of sisters and a canoness before succumbing to small arms fire from the rest of the Sisters army.

A good game overall and i certainly enjoyed it despite the loss. I was hoping to get a Storm of Magic game in but alas i was the only Fantasy player who turned up that evening. Ho hum, maybe next week.

Speaking of Storm of Magic, two new additions arrived today to be made ready for my first game of the new expansion:

Yup, thats right, two Fimir are going to be added to my collection ready to cast their spells in SoM. These are two ancient plastic Heroquest Fimir. For those less venerable readers, Heroquest was basically a stripped down version of Warhammer Quest that was created by GW in conjunction with MB. It featured the same races as Warhammer but the background was pretty much seperated from the fantasy setting.
I've begun hacking away at one of the fimir, i plan to replace his axe with a staff and base him up on something modern. Then it'll be slapping on the paint.
Also on my converting table is a new attempt at converting a Baron for my Dark Eldar. I've decided to keep them in the end and go back to my original plan for the army of a solid Hellion core. I will add a couple of squads of Scourges and maybe a Razorwing or two because quite frankly the models are gorgeous. The wyche side of things will be dropped however and Urien Rakarth has sadly departed for Ebay.
The custom skyboard is the bog standard Hellion board, cut down in places to alter the shape a bit and make it a tad thinner. And then i've added some spikey bits and some grenade launchers to make it look a bit more special.
Next up is converting the rider to look a bit more unique than my first effort. So plenty to keep me busy for now.

Our chief weapon is surprise! Surprise and fear...

Another parcel arrived for me this morning, this time containing the next additions to my resurgent Inquisitor warband - Special Security Enforcer Barbaretta.
The kit comes in a number of pieces, and has additional pieces for variety. It's not advertised on the GW site but the Barbaretta kit actually comes with 3 different heads. One helmeted, one bare and one helmeted with a visor. I'll be using the helmet without the visor and keep the other two in my bits box for further Inquisitor additions.
Also included are a choice of arms, giving the enforcer the option to hold a security shield or a firearm. Again i'll be using the variant arm on my Enforcer.


Accompanying the Enforcer is a cyber mastiff, which is a pretty cool little model and certainly adds character to a warband.
Also arriving today was the next addition to my beastmen army, a Beastlord to lead them into battle. With luck i'll some pics of my Beastmen up tomorrow along with the initial work on my Inquisitor models.

Nobody expects the Inquisition...

I had planned on adding a few pictures of the latest work on my Beastmen, Bling Wing and Menoth yesterday but i was distracted by a parcel i wasn't expecting to arrive yet.

Contained within was Slick Devlan, one of GW's Inquisitor range that i've been meaning to buy for years.
For those unfamiliar with Inquisitor (and given GW's woeful treatment of specialist games there is no reason why you should be familiar unless you were in the hobby at the time) it was a short lived 54mm scale narrative skirmish game GW produced several years ago.
This was the game that spawned the Eisenhorn Trilogy by Dan Abnett along with the impetous to add both the Daemonhunters and Witchhunters to the 40k game proper.
Sadly it failed to take off and disappeared into obscurity, despite being one of the best rulesets GW ever produced.
Anyway i'd been meaning to get Slick for a while, and since there was a resurgence of Inquisitor interest at the local GW recently i decided now was the time. I'd planned on using him as my Inquisitor himself rather than just a henchman.

The necessitated a bit of conversion. First i removed one of his standard guns and replaced it with a bolter, made from a heavy bolter and assault cannon ammo box from the Dark Angels Landspeeder kit.

Slick also suffers from stress related baldness, with clumps falling out everywhere. This tattyness wouldn't do for my Inquisitor and so i put my limited greenstuffing skills to the test and sculpted him a new hairdo.

In the post currently is the next member of my warband and with luck i should be able to get an Inquisitor campaign on the go in the not too distant future, something i'm really looking forward to.

Fresh start?

The last few weeks i've been selling hobby stuff on Ebay, including my Ogres, Grey Knights, High Elves and Empire armies.

Now this wasn't because i'm dropping the hobby or switching completely to a different game system. Instead it was to have a major clear out of armies i have either left unused on the shelf for months, in this case the Ogres and Grey Knights, and getting rid of models that have sat unpainted and unloved, my Empire and High Elves.

I've found over recent years i have fallen back into my old bad habit of starting armies, grabbing a few boxes then leaving them unpainted while i move onto the next project.

So i've resolved to put a stop to this before it gets out of hand. So i'm cutting right back to a handful of armies, all of which i will get painted and actually use. At the moment these have been narrowed down to my Daemons for Fantasy and 40k, Bling Wing, Beastmen and Menoth for Warmachine.

My Dark Angels are looking to be sold next. They were the prompting for the starting of this blog but since buying them i've added little and haven't actually used them in a game of 40k. Right now they are sat in a box unfinished and i lack the motivation to return to them.

Had the rumours of the next 40k starter box being Dark Angels i may have kept them but since thats looking more likely to be Black Templars at the moment it's put me off somewhat.

The next choice is whether to keep my Dark Eldar or not. I love the miniatures and rules, but i just can't seem to do them justice with my painting which is a source of constant frustration.

If anyone is interested in the Dark Angel and Dark Eldar they have seen posted on this blog then drop me a comment, or if you desperately want to convince me not to sell then comment too.

With luck i should have some pictures of my Menoth and Bling Wing up tomorrow, assuming my camera works. Until then may the dice gods bless your rolls.

We will not go silently into the night...

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in the history of mankind. "Mankind." That word should have new meaning for all of us today. We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore. We will be united in our common interests. Perhaps it's fate that today is the Fourth of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom... Not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution... but from annihilation. We are fighting for our right to live. To exist. And should we win the day, the Fourth of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day the world declared in one voice: "We will not go quietly into the night!" We will not vanish without a fight! We're going to live on! We're going to survive! Today we celebrate our Independence Day!

Happy Bill Pullman Day Colonials.