My adventures in darkest Afghanistan have come to an end and it is time for me to get back to actually having some hobby time. Logistically while I’m overseas my hobby dreams come to a close. Having enough space to even setup a paint station is never a guarantee and if there is most likely Uncle Same keeps you busy to where there isn’t the time to get anything done. Despite these huge roadblocks there are a few nice benefits of spending nine months overseas….
I put the finishing touches on my underworld denizens team this weekend by putting the number transfers on the team. To celebrate I took some new pics, so here’s a massive photo dump (after the break)!
Earlier this year I picked up some hardcover cases with pluck foam from Sam’s Club and did a little review-ish thing. I decided to return the cases to the store, because really they were much too big. I wanted something I could fit inside a backpack along with my rules manuals, dice, etc. Not feel like I was using carry-on luggage every time I went to play some games. In the end I decided to buy the Citadel Skirmish Case, which I’ve liked quite a bit. You can fit a lot of minis in there and it fits in a backpack. However with two Blood Bowl teams (with 4 big guys among them!) and then with my Middle-earth Strategy Battle Games minis, things started to get a bit crowded. I also didn’t feel like hauling around the bulk of my miniatures collection all the time, too many eggs in one basket.
I started researching the Kill Team Case Games Workshop produced when Kill Team was announced. It’s basically the one of the accordion foam trays in the Skirmish Case but in a zippered case. In a Facebook thread about the product, people mentioned they didn’t like how soft the foam exterior was, and one guy mentioned picked up a little case from Harbor Freight for $15. Fast forward a couple months and I’ve picked one up myself.
Originally I was going to post this as a question to the Great British Hobbit League Facebook group, but it got rather lengthy so I decided to just write a post about it.
As you may know from previous posts I’ve been working on a Rivendell army for the newly rebranded Middle-earth Strategy Battle Game that hit shelves a couple of weeks ago. The new rules and profiles are brilliant and the game features army bonuses and a new ally matrix. There are now three levels of allies, historical (or green) allies retain their army bonuses when playing them together. Rivendell has three green allies: The Fellowship, Numenor and Lothlorien.
Another month has come and gone and with it another paint challenge. As a reminder, September’s painting challenge was as follows:
September got its name from being the 7th month of the original Roman calendar. January and February were added later making it 9th.
These are the official miniatures North Star Miniatures sells for Dracula’s America, but they are really licensed from Artizan Miniatures. While the miniatures are pretty simple as far as details go, the sculpts really impressed me and I enjoyed painting them quite a lot.
As an extra two I painted up the two werewolves while I was at it. I can’t count them as my surprise two because they go with the 7 painted.
So what were my surprise inclusions? How about some mutated goblins for my underworld Blood Bowl team. Remember them?
Jeff also finished the challenge. His first completed mini was for a special event in the Age of Sigmar campaign he’s participating in. The event featured a jousting game, so you know he couldn’t resist whipping up something for his Stormcast wannabes Flesh Eater Courts army.
Not satisfied with one big guy, Jeff also painted up a big guy for his ork Blood Bowl team. Again another conversion, this time on the controversial troll from Games Workshop. I think Jeff did a great job modifying the questionable pose of the GW model.
And for his seven, Jeff got back to the grindstone and ground out seven more genestealers for Space Hulk. There are two more lurking in the background (aren’t there always? Those blip counters can be nasty … ) but Jeff had completed those previously.
And what about Jason? Well unfortunately life got the best of Jason and he couldn’t meet the deadline, coughing up the first $5 into the pot for failing to make the deadline.
Next up is October’s theme …
Things That Go Bump in the Night!
I’m a little late on sharing the results of our August Paint Challenge, but late is better than never right? This month we decided to paint up some Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire warbands. Jeff and Jason opted to both paint Magore’s Fiends while I painted up my Sepulchral Guard.
Of course Jeff finished first. Jeff continues the iron and blood theme of his bloodskin army for Age of Sigmar. These guys are definitely more iron than blood of course as they are heavily armored. I really admire Jeff’s metallics I feel like they turn out looking so much better than mine.
Next up are my Sepulchral Guard. I opted for an orange and black look for my skeletons. Everybody seems to be doing red on these guys (which looks great!) but I decided to do something a little different.
It’s a little Halloweeny of course, and a bit of an ode to my high school colors, but honestly I never had much school spirit (get it? eh … that joke would work better on the upcoming nighthaunt guys, wouldn’t it?)
And finally, Jason pulled through at the last minute with his take on the Fiends. Jason opted for more of the classic Khorne look and they look fantastic! I especially like the muted colors on the fleshhound. That thing looks ferocious.
Congrats again to everyone completing another paint challenge. Now for this month’s challenge …
September got its name from being the 7th month of the original Roman calendar. January and February were added later making it 9th.
Didn’t we just go over a bunch of juicy news and previews? Oh wait that was over a week ago. Still, a week?! Slow down, GW, we can’t keep up! Alright, guys lets gather back ’round the round table to go over what was shown off.
As a bit of fun, we decided to rank the eight Shadespire warbands strictly based on what we think of the models. This has nothing to do with how these warbands have performed in tournaments or how much we like playing any of them. It’s strictly superficial. Although it is a known fact that painted models play better. True story.
Sorry for the clickbait headline, list articles are the original form of clickbait, so I had to go with it. Tongue in cheek of course.
Yesterday a ton of news dropped at Warhammer Fest Europe, a bit shocking considering how much news has been dropping lately for a variety of Games Workshop games, but it looks like GW was holding plenty of tasty nuggets in reserve for us. James, Jeff and I give our thoughts on the beans that were spilled on yesterday’s Warhammer Community post.
This month we decided to take part in Azazel’s Jewel of July painting challenge and the results are in!
