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! 🙂
“Welcome those who seek the Ink. Let me tell you of a very fell thing. A construct that should not be and one that can only be made by mad minds. As you are well aware the sprawling libraries of Otera have been over come with chaos, the means by which this has happened is the very ink the scribes work with. Blasphemous texts have been written, and read from, unleashing untold horrors within those sacred halls, but their evil knows no bounds and a more destructive way was devised. The Daemon Wells. These works of mad genius contain vast amounts of corrupted ink, the result is that of a gateway. Chanting scribes surround each one and corrupted souls sacrifice the captured innocent until the Well bubbles or smokes and spews forth hell spawn from the realm of chaos itself.
Halls have been lost to them already, countless priceless tomes and knowledge gone. They must be destroyed! Do you, Noble Lord, have what it takes to enter this underground hell and take back what is rightfully ours. Others have passed through but none have returned. Let us hope for your sake, that they are dead and not turned. ”
Escaped Librarian Omero. The surface of Otera.
This is a Daemon Well. I designed this one and 3D printed it but they can take many forms. Through out this campaign I will be setting little challenges, to all those who want to, you can take part and create your own visions of the objects and events that take place during The Daemon Ink. So what’s your idea of an ink black spawning pool of the damned!?
Post your creations up and don’t forget to #thedaemonink or link to this page.
Hello ladies and gents! So it’s happened! I’ve found myself inspired enough to finally write up a campaign, last time I did one it was The Chapel event and that was way back in 2017. Time flies and as most of us have ended up with more time I’d thought I create an event again with aim to play it next year, once all this weirdness is over. The invite is for everyone and if you’d like to join me for the actual games when they occur then, as time passes, let me know. Numbers will dictate where it will be held.
The Daemon Ink is an ][nq28 campaign, which will set war bands of either pure intent or corrupted madness against each other as the fight for control of a valuable Fortress Library World of the Inquisition. The name of that planet is Otera.
So this is the setting now lets take a look at some of the characters and NPC’s that populate the libraries of Otera.
Stewards : These guys have already been introduced in the short story Morde’rya. They are the order that attends to the daily running of the vast libraries. The order is split into units. Each unit has it’s own section of the vast library to care for and their knowledge is limited to that section. No Steward can activate the Portals that lead to other sections. Many Stewards have been sacrificed by the Scribes and their masters, but there is hope that some have survived.
Librarians : Keepers of the knowledge. Their wisdom is great and they are the ones who attend to the books, data stacks and scrolls. They have access to all sections of the Library and are very adept at using the Portals. No area is off limits to them. Some seem to have turned to the dark powers and many are missing. The hope is that they are in hiding using their knowledge to keep them safe or they may be taking the fight to their corrupted fellows and joining a war band pure of soul to reclaim the holy library.
Scribes : The corrupted ones. The scribes are the playthings of the dark gods and are the ones who have spread the corruption. It is unknown if any avoided this fate. They gather in groups around their constructed Daemon Wells and chant the corrupting litanies that break the veil allowing daemon spawn to spew forth. Directed by fallen Inquisitors larger groups have been found and truly destructive forces have been unleashed.
I’ve made really good progress on the boards the first of which was the Mag Bellum setup shown here. That set will be used to create parts of the vast sections of the library but first you’ll have to get in.
This is the entrance.
Who will be defending this entrance? That is something you’ll have to wait for. It’s not going to be pleasant though and war bands will have to be smart with how they go about it.
When creating your characters for your war bands please use the guide below.
As a rule no heavy weapons are allowed but I’ll elaborate on the details in a follow up post but for now go get kitbashing!
If you want to take part please be sure to reference this post or use the #thedaemonink
That’s it for now I think, so I’ll leave you with another image of the Entrance board to get the mood flowing. Until next time.
Hello peeps! As the time goes by and we find that our time at home has been extended I find myself thinking of the future and what would happen if after all the furlough I won’t have a job to go back to. It’s a problem quite a few of us will face and so I’ve been using this time to get my Mag Bellum venture up and running properly. It has taken some time to be sure and I’ve had some good feed back from people so now I feel the time has come. The system works and I would love to share it with you!
The way this will start will be with Patreon. Patreon if you don’t know is site for artists and the like that you can sign up with and for a fee help them continue with their work. You get something for your money and in my case you will get 3D models to print and create your own Mag Bellum boards.
This is what the welcome page will look like with the different tiers available.
As well as Patreon I will be offering a service for those who want the product but don’t have the means to make it. This will take a bit of time to sort out though but I’m thinking along the lines of it being like a commission, so only making two or so orders at a time. So lots to do still but I’m very close to launch and I’ll be updating as I go along on Instagram and here. Well, I think that’s about it for now. Any thoughts or suggestions would be most welcome and I’ll leave you with a few shots of what will be on offer should you choose to support me on this journey.
Greetings one and all! So the times get stranger and the hobby gets better! The internet has be awash with awesome, inspirational projects and it’s been a joy to read, look and watch all the great content pouring out of people in these uncertain times. Two thumbs up to you all!
As you can imagine I’ve not been idle and have a few projects on the go, 4 to be precise. The first is my Sanguinala Procession, which you can find here and the second one you can find right here right now! I’m pretty excited about this one as it’s a Inq28 campaign. The Daemon Ink! I am yet to write any lore for it but I have been busy creating one of the boards and that’s whats on show today.
Using a Mag Bellum set I wanted to create one of the many underground libraries, which are, in part, just sections of a larger subterranean labyrinth of colossal size. Being a Mag Bellum board I can create many different setups with it, which will allow me to write a few different scenarios to go with the back ground. First up though lets take a look at the setup of the first board.
The whole board packs neatly away into two boxes
The tiles are set out
The walls and details are added
Now for the tour! The image heavy section. 🙂
This board was a joy to make and I can’t wait to see war bands dealing death through the haunting halls of the library labyrinth and either working to see The Daemon Ink succeed or fighting hard to stop it.
Hello peeps! Hope you’re all well in hobby land. As for my self I must say I’ve been suffering from a lack of it 😦 and yes it’s the same old culprit we call life and things you must do instead of wanting to do. As important as all that shit is I feel it’s just as important to give time to your interests. My wife calls it the pie of life, and she is correct, one slice should never get too big. So here I am reslicing my pie to much more balanced and enjoyable portions.
As some of you are aware I have been developing a tile system called Mag Bellum. Its magnetic and solid! It’s also been a hard slog, due to pie issues, and I feel I am now ready to give some much needed attention to it. So let’s jump in shall we 🙂
First up you have this selection of tiles.
This bunch is enough to create a 2 x 2 skirmish sized board.
Nice! But wait. You can do so much more.
And more!
What about walls? Yep they will be available to and look like this.
As you can see they come as a basic sci- fi design but you will be able to change that by sliding various inserts into place. This one is the Library insert. Door ways and smaller wall sections have also been designed.
All this is in preparation for Salute 2020. I plan to have it in the shop soon and will be documenting my road to Salute so you will see my progress on the designs and what will be available on the day, I’m going to have some terrain pieces to buy and a couple of complete special edition sets.
I will now leave you with some tasty shots of some of the kits you can expect to purchase in the very near future. Cheers! 🙂
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 🙂
So Warcry. Have you all had a go? I did with Alex of Leadballoony a few weeks back and I have to say it was a breath of hobby fresh air to me. So much so that we made a plan to get a warband each together with the aim of kicking each others butt and, of course me being me, I decided to create a whole board just to play on. That’s what I’ve been busy with this weekend and this is the result so far.
Taking inspiration from the Realm of Chaos books of yore I set out to create a desolate chaos waste land with a particular attention to textures. These textures were achieved a number of ways. The first was the longest process and it was done by leaving my used IPA ( isopropyl alcohol ) out in the sun and elements for 8 months. The IPA is used to clean resin 3D prints and so once the weather had done it’s thing I was left with very textured lumps of solid resin, perfect for terrain. The second is the use of modeling paste from an art store. Great stuff! You can shape it and stick things in it and create some pretty cool effects. Third is good old GW texture paints and last is sand, small slate and gravel. The section in the middle will be a nasty looking river in which I hope to drown some of Alex’s war band of self righteous elves. 😉
Well I hope you like what you see and I’ll leave you with a couple of images of the first character of my war band. The Unmade!!
I’ve been working very hard to get everything ready for Salute this coming Saturday and I think I’m winning 🙂
So to celebrate that small fact here’s a promotional animation for Mag Bellum, which was created by my company Black Edge 3D. This vid can be seen on every social media platform I’m on, with more animations to follow in the near future as we start to expand the range. Very exciting times!!
heresy of us 