Armies on Parade I

On my list of hobby targets this year I have Armies on Parade. Now I started this last year so I’ve got a good head start and my idea hasn’t changed either, which is also good, I do have a habit of changing direction mid project 🙂

The inspiration for this project comes from three pieces of art work.

These pieces, all done by John Blanche, are three of my favourites and I have spent untold hours staring at them as a teen. Now I want to create something special which combines elements from each one but with my own interpretation and all three images lend themselves greatly to inspiring an Armies on Parade project.

So lets take a look at my progress so far.

Lots of materials have been combined, from 3D printed elements and plastic bits to natural parts like the branches. The ground is textured resin parts and wall filler and there are a few GW bits used as well. Long way to go before I can get priming and so far I’m pretty pleased with how things are turning out. A few more gothic building pieces are needed I think and I’ve been toying with idea of giving it a painted back drop.

Oh yes, I nearly forgot! It needs skulls. Lots more SKULLS!!!

Below is a not very good teaser shot of what my Dark Angels are going to look like. I’ve opted for a Dark Angel Horus Heresy era armour colour as I have never really liked my Dark Angels green. They were black in the Rogue Trader days and they shall remain that way! The Death Wing bone is a must as well, with feathers! 🙂

Until next time. Happy hobby!

Eavy Metal!! Old School.

Here’s a a bit of fun I’ve had putting together a few pages of old school Eavy metal, just like the ones from the old days. Oh how I miss them! Such great sources of inspiration then and now, I often have a look back through old White Dwarfs to find a spark for an idea and the Eavy Metal pages have always been great for that. They were bright and bold and showed the wide range of wackiness that is Warhammer. Glorious!!

Flesh Eaters Kill Team

Hello all! Hope this post finds you well. Today is a little post about a project that has been sitting on my hobby table for far too long, unfinished and unloved. A Flesh Eaters Kill Team.

Red and me don’t get along too well. I find it one of the harder colours to paint and this is why they probably sat there for so long. I do however like the Flesh Eaters and have done since I first saw them in that now legendary lineup of Astartes in the Rogue Trader rule book. So I set about creating a small squad of them and tried to capture that ferocity and blood lust they are known for.

So here they are. Red, finished and loved.

Squad Lycaordan

Lycaordan

Morcyra

Marqogan

Astekim

Tholkca

Slaanesh War band

Flesh, pain and pleasure! The sadistic lovers of Chaos. SLAANESH!!! Sssaay she who thirsts name with rapture!

So I’ve been adding to my Slaanesh war band the forbidden fruits of which are the subject of this post. This is one of those projects that is on the slow burn and I’m pretty sure, in fact I know, I will be adding more to it over time, I already have a few unopened boxes of Slaanesh goodies in the model draws and The Keeper of Secrets will be mine ( oh yes it will be mine ) very soon.

As projects go it’s been one of exploring new techniques and pushing myself with converting and modeling (CAD and traditional) plus with the release of Contrast paints it has given me the opportunity to do some speed painting, a method I used to do the cultists. All in all then it’s been great fun and some of my most satisfying hobby moments have come from it. May they continue in Slaanesh’s name!

The Leader of the War band. Slaanesh Witch and her Daemonettes

Psyker and Beastmen

Possessed Emperors Children Marine

Cultists

The above images are of the Chaotic war engines of the band. The Impulsor Engine and Rapture missile launcher.

Give praise to She Who Thirsts.

#Top5 and other bits

Hello! It’s Sunday again! My god the weeks fly, I must be having too much fun 😉 On the hobby front that is very true, what with the daily painting sessions and frantic kitbashing blitzes, the Saturday night RPG sessions, which are just the best and a right laugh, to the finishing of long over due projects, it’s all pretty sweet. I do however miss a good old massacre over some lovingly crafted terrain and the socialising that goes with it. These times will happen again to be sure and when they do I will have an abundance of models and terrain to choose from, as I hope you all will too.

So onto things hobby nuts! I was recently asked to do my top 5 on Instagram. Now I don’t usually take part in these sort of things but as it was hobby related I thought I would give it a bash. It was hard!! Really hard! It took me about a week of thinking about it and thinking of all the models I’d done and reasons why they may make the cut. Five is a horrible number for such a thing as, as I’m sure you will agree, painting models, we put so much effort into them and learn so much from doing it that they all have meaning to us. So after it got all too much I took the plunge and below are my top five.

Ok whats up next! A quick project I painted this weekend. A work in monochrome. Really enjoyed painting with such a limited palette and I’m keen to try it on my next Mag Bellum set. This is a Inq28 warband that’s been lying around staring at me looking all depressing in their undercoat begging me to finish them off and I’m glad I did because what I’ve ended up with is quite a striking group that was quick to paint.

Next up we have another war band. Inq28 is getting a lot of love these days! This is the Flawed Saint and her followers of dubious nature.

And last but not least. A big Adepta Sororitas Relic Chapel Tank. This was a bit of a distraction and came about wanting to paint a tank but not owning one so I designed the chassis in CAD and 3D printed it plus a few other parts like the treads and then used a combination of failed prints, random plastic parts and some old used GW scenery to create the rest. The St at the top is also a 3D print and the whole thing was great fun to make.

The aim of this beast is to carry sisters with heavy weapons whilst striking faith into the hordes of fanatics surrounding it and fear to those who oppose it! Armed with 6 heavy flamers it can surround itself in righteous flame whilst a Sister dialogues screams from the pulpit at the head of the beast.

Pipeline Projects

Hello again!

As you all know as hobbyists we usually have more things on the go and ideas floating around in our heads than we can ever have a hope in finishing. This coupled with the ever expanding awesomeness of releases that feed our imagination and addiction makes this even harder to achieve. Now, I find it even harder still because, for the life of me, I just can’t leave a model how it is, it must be changed even if it’s just a head swap. So here I am compiling a visual list of models that will get my attention again in due course.

First up The war band of The Flawed Saint. This is a small project really and is designed for very small skirmish inq28 style games.

I actually finished the Flawed Saint herself the other day.

 

Next up is a Nurgle warband.

This is it so far. What I’m aiming for is a large group of poxwalker types ( I have loads on sprues!) called the Locked. I’m aiming for at least 20.

 

Flesh Eater Space Marines Kill Team.

These guys have been around for a while and they’ve even had a few runs on the battlefield. I find red quite a hard colour to get right and I think they need more attention to make the red pop a bit more, although I don’t want them to look shiny. Marines, in my view, should always look like they’re in the wars. I’m planning on creating some transfers, or do free hand, for them as well based on the original design of their chapter symbol, which is much better than the newer one.

 

Lastly I am slowly collecting some good old pewter models. That’s right I’ve had an urge to get back to my roots and I’m tracking down all the models from The Realms of Chaos I loved as a kid, teen and young adult, and creating an old school Chaos army. I have a long way to go and at the time of writing some things are in the post, but here’s a few shots of what I have at the moment.

I really want some of the original Blood Letters, at least five, so if any of you wonderful people have them and wouldn’t mind parting with them then let me know 🙂

Cheers!!

All Things Fleshy. A Possessed Marine of Slaanesh.

Hello Heretics!

The call of Chaos has been ringing in my ears and I’ve succumbed to its seducing tones. The call of Slaanesh as caused me to drop all other projects and focus only on she who thirsts and being the self-centred, over controlling and extremely jealous type bitch bastard it is I obeyed. My soul has been covered in silk and poked with pins and my mind has had thoughts of the truly deranged and disturbing things. One such vision is this chap. I’ve yet to give him a name so any suggestions would be great, serious or otherwise……….. go on poke some fun at him, you know you want to! He actually likes being poked as he’s your typical sadistic, masochistic, possessed, psychopath marine!

I have to say the he was a joy to kit bash and sculpt and to date I think he’s one of my better painted miniatures. I really loved blending the fleshy pink skin tones with the washed out purples of his armour. The aim was to make the armour appear to be changing into flesh as the Daemon inside him takes more control of the Marine he used to be.

So what will his purpose be? Well he’s the beginnings of a new war band, which will be part of a new campaign I am in the middle of writing. I shall reveal more in the next coming months but lets just say that it will be better than the Chapel!

Anyhoo I hope you like and are also positively repulsed by what you see. Keep on hobbying hobby nuts!

……………………………………………………………Cue lots of static……………………………………………………………

 

Now time for a commercial!

Mag Bellum will be at Salute 2019!

To help me get there and make my dream of Mag Bellum a reality please show your support by purchasing this cool, and designed by myself,  T-Shirt! Guaranteed to fit if you choose the right size – it’s a great thing to get paint down, spill wine on and use to clean glasses. It’s the ultimate hobby apparel!! So what are you waiting for! Click on the eye-catching red text below and get yourself something cool now.

M A G B E L L U M

A very big thank you to you all.

…………………………………………………….Cue more static………………………………………………

The Third Covenant. Black Shields Space Marines.

Just a bit of an image bomb to start off the year. I’ve been meaning to take some clearer images of my Black Shields from Armies on Parade last year and I’ve finally managed it. So here they are. Happy New Year everyone!

Armies on Parade 2018

Hello all!

So last weekend was my local Warhammer Armies on Parade event and it was awesome. The turn out this year was higher than previous years and it was great to see some young bloods get stuck in.

Now I’ve been threatening Dave the manager with participating for at least 3 years now and so I thought it was high time I bit the bullet and have a go at it. I have to say that even though the pressure was high to get it completed on time ( I managed to get it all done in 6 weeks ) I enjoyed the sheer hobby madness of it all and if you’re thinking of doing it then I say get to it, you won’t be disappointed and it’s a great way to challenge yourself.

So how’d I do?…………………….Not half bad! I managed to get the awards for Best Theme, Best Army and Best Painted in the 40K category and took home silver in the managers choice. I even got a medal!

I have plans to expand the army as well with another 15 models to add in the future. My Black Shields will be a grim force to be reckoned with that’s for sure.

Here’s some pictures of my army with more to follow soon. I will take better ones of the squads and characters as well. Hope you like them 🙂

The Third Covenant – II

The Third Covenant project continues with a scout squad. Lead by an ancient Apothecary and his trusted Sergeant. For the scouts I went old school in their look. I love the old scout models and I wanted to make my own up to date version of them. I think they look the part all action compared to Bato, who comes across as slow and purposeful, all shouty and grizzled. The Sergeant on the other hand looks ready to burst into action, silent and deadly, the perfect teacher for stealth.

The aim of this project is to have an army ready for Armies on Parade this year and so I’m building squad by squad with view to paint them all together over the last few months leading up to the deadline. Fingers and toes crossed I manage to do it.