Back to Basics

So after a really successful trip to the 40K Doubles held at Warhammer World, Dezartfox (Tim from no on!) and I have already decided on what we will be doing for our next attempt at the best army title.

What I felt after being in the nominations, was "was I really up to the level required... or do I have a shiny a Forgeworld Army". I think it was a blend of it being 1) Elysians 2) I painted them quite well... but not perfect and finally 3) I was with Tim, a previous best army winner with his Deathwing.

Obviously I have had the thought... Am I really good enough? I think personally the answer is no. Me and Tim have had a good chat about it and come up with a potential screamer of a problem. I currently paint at nearly arms length in an almost comical fashion, as when I hold it closer I struggle to see the model. The answer is possibly glasses. I'm going to try and arrange an eye test if I can this Saturday.

Aside from that, I've ever truly worked on ensuring I have a clean, smart and tidy paint job in my life. So after taking some inspiration from Ron (FTW) and Dave (N++ Wargaming) I decided to go "Back to Basics".

FTW Back to basics
N++ Wargaming Back to basics

So I present efforts so far... Smurf #1

This first image I have applied black undercoat, and base coat of 50:50 black and regal blue and then another layer of 50:50 regal blue and Ultramarines blue.

In this second image I've appled line highlights of ultramarines blue, followed by an edge highlight 0f 50:50 ultramarines blue and space wolf grey. I've also notice I've taken some paint of the toes... Next lesson is painting on a handle.

C&C welcome as this is going to all about improvement.

GW Doubles Nomination and my Army

Wahooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recently went to the GW 40K doubles tournament held at Warhammer World. It's a great even, I absolutely love it and will be going back for more. Dezartfox over at the The Vanus Temple and myself took a combined force of Angels of Redemption and the plucky lads from the Elysian 205th Air Corps.

The force really worked well together as the Angels of Redemption were the real hitting power to the force and the guard ran distraction. It worked so well we managed to come 13th place from what I hear... not only that, but we got nominated for Best Army as well.

So here's some pics of our force in the freshly installed cabinets.

And here's a few links to the blogs of the guys I went with:

The Vanus Temple
Marts Warhammer 40K Blog
The Rune of Stone

Nerd Splurge!!!!!

Wow, I went down to the exhibition held by my local war-games club today. It's an event called Vapnartak. It's a great little event for finding the occasional little gem.

Vapnartak is predominantly a historical war-games event, however games such as 40k and warmachine have been worming their way in. So much so that the 40k tournament being held there, managed to garner the prime spot!

Is was originally going to attend the tournament; a great little 1,000pts compt'd event. However, I had the opportunity to go to a comedy gig the night before.

So I popped down to see how the tourney was progressing and consider buying some Pegasus terrain... If it was there.

That's when what I can only describe as madness hit me. It's something that I think is a dormant beast residing within all gamers. I call it Nerd Splurge!

Basically, the average gamer turns into a spending idiot because they are at an event, with little or no thought of the repercussion.

So what was the result of my Nerd Splurge.

The blue crystal chessex dice.




Incursion - I have considering this for awhile.



Posh static grass... Though thus stuff is awesome



Shot of what you get with a paint pot for scale... It's double sided as well.



And a shot of it on a base.




Vallejo varnishes, matte medium and glaze medium




Vallejo fluro paints and my attempt to find and an alternative to brazen brass




So there we go... Did I need any of it? No! Am I chuffed with the result? Yes. Do I regret it? Partially, but I'll get over that.

So tell me about you Nerd Splurges.

Small update Valk interior weathered

So here's a quick update. I've been working on getting models up to scratch for going to doubles. My fellow team mate is Dezartfox over at the vanus temple. He's running a blood angel list and taking a storm raven with him.

We've come to the decision that it's not going to be killer all comers list that can handle everything... though we will look cool. Or as cool as nerds with lots of toy planes can be :)

So this was the interior at 10.00pm last night.


After creating a wash using graveyard earth and mig weathring powder made fluid with screen wash concentrate... no water added ;) then apply to where you want the dust to be. I then dried it with a hot air blower. I then use a stiff drybrush to "dust" where the dried paint pigment was, blending it in.




Same again, but with a desert coloured pigment. The key to the weathering is layers, as is always with painting models. Another key point is variation in colours and shades... in my opinion anyway.






I've also added a key bit of bare metal as well. I went to the great expense of sourcing the best weathering pigment in a metal shade... scrapings from a pencil :)

Rub my finger in it and them where I want bare metal applied.


The boys relaxing before they are dropped into battle.


And a token exterior photo.