Fun with Fimir

A not so friendly fimir, based with a reminder of their totally NSFW background

Just a quick update today. I decided to get a little bit of painting and basing done during the brief respite from the unnatural british heat (oh rain how i've missed you), so finished off my Fimir and got him based in the hope that white flock would have the same cooling effect as real snow. Alas it does not.

On a whim i also decided to paint up one of the Epic scale Rhino's i've had laying around for a while.
Small but perfectly formed

It occurred to me that there may well be some hobbyists out there who've never actually seen an Epic scale miniature next to a normal 40k model, thanks to GW's less than stellar support of the specialist games range, so a quick comparison shot below with the Rhino next to the only tank i own, an Imperial Guard Chimera.

Size doesnt matter it's what you do with it that counts

...And an almost fanatical devotion to the pope

Continuing the theme from my last post, here's another of my recently completed projects: The first few members of an Inquisitor warband.

I've loved Inquisitor since its release many years ago, the idea of a narrative wargame has huge appeal for me. Unfortunately it didn't seem to have much appeal to many others, and quickly disappeared into the mists of Games Workshops Specialist games.

Never one to let that daunt me, i ordered a few models from Ebay and elsewhere solely to own them and to hopefully stir up some interest in the game and get some people to play it with.



First up is my Enforcer. I used the Enforcer Barbaretta model pretty much unaltered. I simply used the alternate arms supplied with the kit along with a plastic power weapon to replace her power maul, to be used as a short sword.

Next up is my henchman, this time using Slick Devlan. I added a few extra bits here and there along with a bolter replacing one of his sidearms made using the Heavy Bolter from a Landspeeder. He has bionics augmenting that arm in game, so fear not his wrist won't shatter the first time he fires his weapon.
One particularly gratifying thing was that when i uploaded this photo to Facebook, it's facial recognition software recognised the models face. Evidently my painting did not prevent the model from looking human, which is unusual.

This last member of the warband was somewhat upsetting to finish. I'd already started work on him several months ago and dubbed him P4WS after my dog at the time, Paws. Sadly this past week Paws passed away. I decided not to rename the character in memory of the pooch.

So that's my warband so far. I intend to put in an order for another member next week, although i've not decided who. At the moment it's a choice between Brother-Captain Artemis, Inquisitor Eisenhorn, Inquisitor Covenant or Preacher Josef.

Until next time,
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-pope.

I just lost to myself at a card game. Now that is humiliating

Browsing through the reduced aisle of my local Forbidden Planet i came across the Fantasy Flight Space Hulk: Death Angel Card Game. Having missed out on the actual Space Hulk set a few years ago, i figured it'd be worth snagging and having a few games. If nothing else i can look at the cards and weep bitter tears at the fact i'll never own a copy of the board game. *sob*

Anyway, tearing off the shrink wrap revealed a lot of cards, some sturdy card tokens and a red dice that turned out to feature far less skulls than i would like. Along with a moderate sized rulebook.

I've always figured the best way to learn a game is to try a play through, so since it supports 1-6 players i gave it a whirl.

It's pretty complex, at least to begin with. You choose a batch of Space Marine Terminators, assemble a hand of their action cards then align them in a formation. Then using the appropriate void lock card, you assemble a set of locations along with two blip decks that contain horrific genestealers.
It's not as complicated as it looks, honest.


Then as you play action cards, your Terminators get to killing Genestealers before the gribblies get their attacks back. Within a few turns i'd already lost Brother Leon and Brother Claudio to their claws, leaving Valencio and Goriel to face the hordes alone.

Alas Brother Leon, the first to die, very very painfully.

This was thanks to the way Genestealers attacks work - roll the dice, if you roll under or equal to the number of Genestealer cards attacking that particular marine, he's dead. Diced into bite sized chunks. - coupled with what are deemed "event" cards but should really be named "F***ing B*****d" cards.
An example "F***ing B*****d" Card, this one is beneficial, so naturally didn't occur in my game.

I have only my shuffling to blame, but the bloomin' things screwed me over with every draw. Just when i thought i may survive, they'd spawn another wave of 'stealers behind my Terminators. After brave Brother Goriel fell against four Genestealers, it was the Event cards that slammed the final nail into the coffin, causing Valencio to be psychically slain thanks to a roll of a 1 on the attack dice.

And how far had i made it into the hulk? About 3 feet down a corridor into the next location.

I can certainly say that even played alone it was enjoyable and i fully intend to nag anyone i can into giving it a try. It plays fast enough that it's perfect for those times when you're stuck waiting for a board at a Gaming club or when you're sat in a train carriage waiting for the wrong kind of leaves to be cleared.

It's available from Fantasy Flight direct if you're in the US of A. Getting it shipped over here is a tad more expensive, so it's worth trying Amazon and the like. Of course if you can, your first port of call should be your Local Gaming Store if you're lucky enough to have one.

Hey look! I do occasionally finish a project!

Way, way back in the mists of time, i posted up pictures of the first Finecast model i'd bought (found here for those interested.) and set about painting it.

Then like so many of the things i blog about i didn't mention Ol' Grulgor again. Until now anyway. You see i do finish stuff off, eventually, but since i have the attention span of the average four year old i usually neglect to actually post about it on the blog.

So without further ado here's my Daemon Prince of Nurgle in all his glory. Including gratuitous ass shot i might add.




I had planned on photographing my whole Daemon army, and spent an afternoon painstakingly moving them from cabinet to table, taking roughly thirty shots of them then packing them away.

Before checking the shots.

This is a critical mistake as i found out to my cost, as when i checked the photos every.single.one. was a blurry splodge.

You may well guess that this resulted in a monumental outburst of profanity and fury that would have left Kharn the Betrayer whimpering in the corner asking for his mummy.

So that is yet to come, along with more work on my Sanguinary Guard, amongst other bits and pieces. Who knows i may even get a game in this week.

Until next time,
Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-pope.

Sanguinary Guard Take Two: Part Deux

Just a quick blog update with a couple of work in progress shots of my new attempt at a Sanguinary Guard force. He still needs a bit of work, namely on the banner and a few details, but it gives the basic idea for the colour scheme, less bling more wing.

Bling Wing: Take Two.

If you've read back on my blog a bit you'll see that i've attempted a Blingwing - also known as a Sanguinary Guard army - before, getting quite far along with the army. But i have to admit their look just didn't quite work. I don't think i achieved the best i could with the force, so they were quietly put up for sale on Ebay and that was that. Or so i thought.

I've recently been away from the hobby, as you may have guessed from the huge number of updates to this blog, and i've not had the chance to play anywhere near as much as i would like. This is a combination of depression, ill parent and upcoming legal fight to get access to my daughter, so understandably little painted soldiers were not that high on my list of priorities.

But under the advice of medical experts, i'm pushing to return to both painting and gaming. This has left me with a few choices. Currently i've been using a Daemon army to play both Fantasy and 40k, largely because half the time there is no one to play Fantasy against.

But i've also got a budding Beastman army that i'd like to try. Which means i needed a small 40k army i could take as well in case there was no one for my Warherd to kill. And so the search was on.

I considered Grey Knights again, but the changes made to their background coupled with just how (un)popular they are these days i would have been one Draigowing amongst many. So they were out.

Space Wolves were next for consideration, a Loganwing army is small but perfectly formed. But the Wolves of Fenris have never quite grabbed me. Perhaps it was being on the receiving end of one too many beat downs when i started in 2nd Edition.

So with those two options out, i started looking further afield. Imperial Guard, Orks and 'Nids were all out of the question, too hordey. Chaos was a possibility, but given the rumours circulating there was a risk i'd end up with an unusable force once the new Codex hit.

Necrons were tempting. That Triach Stalker is just too lovely a model for words and i will own one eventually just for the pleasure of painting it. But again their background has taken a turn for the terrible with their most recent 'dex and its the fluff that gives me inspiration.

So a long story short, coupled with much head scratching and pondering i returned to the Blood Angels, my first true army and my favourite chapter by far.

Could i paint them better this time?

We shall see. At the moment i've picked up a Finecast Dante (all present and correct with no Aero bubbles) and two boxes of the Sanguinary Guard. I learnt much from the last batch, namely don't stick the wings and jump packs on prior to painting (too many crevices).

The debate now, as i glue my hands together and possibly some miniatures too, is whether to go gold again or go red. I've always been a traditionalist when it comes to the Blood Angels - if they ain't got a black shoulder pad trim, they ain't Blood Angels - so having regular Marines apeing Dante's blingbling look did niggle at me. I'm considering going for a classic Honour Guard scheme, red with Gold Helmets, this time around.

****

As a small bonus i'm also going to briefly review some of the new paints. I grabbed the Red Glaze, Red Foundation and Snow Texture Citadel paints and gave them a whirl on some Daemons.

The new red foundation is slightly lighter than the old Mechrite Red, but does seem to cover even better. The red glaze is also pretty good, enhancing the Blood Red i applied it over and really making the red pop.

The texture paint though, i am iffy about. Firstly thanks to the bits of whatever in it, you get bugger all paint in a pot. The texture is a bit sparse once you start painting with it and it just doesn't quite work. So far i can't see myself buying more to use on bases when the old methods work better.

Perhaps i'm using it wrong though. If anyone is still reading this blog (cue tumbleweed) please drop a comment if you have found a use for the new textures.

Until next time, i remain

Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-pope.