Tale of X Gamers - Part the Third

Once again, it's been a while since I posted. Even though, shockingly, I actually had stuff I could have posted  life has played out like a comedy of errors as far as actually photographing any of this stuff is concerned. Long story short, it's taken me the best part of a month to get a working camera and my models in the same place at the same time in order to take pictures.

BUT!

I have lots (well, relatively speaking) of things to update you on!

First, as I mentioned in the last post, my Screaming Bell arrived from Wayland Games and, even though it's not for the Tale of X Gamers project (which should really be a priority at the moment), I couldn't resist breaking open the box and putting it together. It's a nice kit (although I'm still disappointed at the complete lack of extra parts to spice things up - you get the bare minimum to make a Bell or Furnace, and that's it. Not even the odd few rats thrown in, as there are on the Doomwheel...)

Anyway, it came together very quickly. It's not totally glued together; as you can see, I've left the bell section, the Seer, the brazier plus the Rat Ogre Bellringer as separate pieces, both for ease of painting and transportation purposes (I still haven't found anything big enough to carry it in pieces, let alone as a single model...)

As it's not for the Tale of X Gamers, the painting of the Screaming Bell will be put on the backburner until I have at least a decent portion of my ToXG army painted...

...which brings me nicely onto my next update - the Warlock Engineer conversion is more or less complete. I might possibly have gone a bit gung-ho on the Doomrocket; something a bit more understated may have been more appropriate, but I figured Skaven don't do subtlety! 

Finally, I've been working away on the Globadiers. I plan on sculpting hands holding poisoned wind globes and then attaching these to the Clanrat right arms (or left, in the case of the Bombadier), which is why those are currently missing. In this regard, the giant monkey-like paws of the older Clanrats may work to my advantage, because it will mean my sculpting hopefully won't need to be too brilliant to get away with it.

You'll notice there are only nine Globadiers with torsos and heads at the moment. I took these with me when I went away for a couple of weeks, but somehow only managed to pack nine bodies (but still managed ten of everything else). I'm half convinced I managed to lose the tenth torso on the way, but the more likely explanation is that I simply can't count. Anywho, the last Globadier will join the ranks of his more bodily-endowed colleagues shortly.

Until then, ciao!

Tale of X Gamers - Part II

Only a quick update - the conversion bits I ordered for the Globadiers have turned up, so I can get cracking on putting them together. Some Nezumi Chem Heads from Micro Art Studio and Biohazard Backpacks from MaxMini. I'll have a couple of spare backpacks from the Globadiers (I'm only making ten) so one of those will be going to the Warlock Engineer conversion.

In other news, I also ordered a Screaming Bell from Wayland Games a couple of weeks ago and it turned up today (although the two parcels from Poland that were ordered a week later still arrived before it...). Anyway, it will be a nice little toy to put together (even though it's not for the Tale of Gamers!)

Tale of X Gamers - Part I

Carrying on from the last post, I mentioned I was taking part in Asrai.org's summer contest - the Tale of X Gamers. Those who are interested in the details can read the original thread on Asrai.org here, but in a nutshell the task is to build and paint a 1000pt Fantasy army by September 15th. 

I'm mainly using it as motivation to continue adding to my Skaven and plough through the unpainted models I've already got (rather than buying loads of new stuff). This 1000pt block will then be added to my already-painted stuff and will get me nicely over 2000pts. 

The list I'm building then is as follows:

Warlock Engineer ~ 138pts

 - Lv.2, Doomrocket, Warplock Pistol

40 Clanrats ~ 290pts

- Full Command, Spears, Shields, Warpfire Thrower

40 Clanrats ~ 275pts

- Full Command, Spears, Shields,  Ratling Gun

2 Rat Ogres ~ 88pts

- Packmaster

17 Giant Rats ~ 75pts

- 3 Packmasters

10 Poisoned Wind Globadiers ~ 130pts

- Bombadier with Death Globe

996pts

The Clanrats, Rat Ogres and Giant Rats are all self-explanatory. They're models I already have and they'll bulk out what I've already painted to give a solid core for bigger armies. The Engineer and Globadiers will be conversions - the Engineer because I want a variation on the IoB model (which I already have a painted version of) and the Globadiers because I refuse to pay £7 a pop for a dodgy-looking metal model. I'll convert my own for a fraction of the price, thank you very much.

So without further ado, here's a few snaps of some of the models in question:

Howdy!

Well, it's certainly been a while. More than a month since my last post - oops! I'll try not to let that happen again, but I can't make any promises...

April was a slow month, May was even slower as progress crawled almost to a dead stop. I do have a couple of things to show for it though

I began working on a few Dr. Who figures, just as something different. A few basecoats here and there coupled with some washes. Not much, but every little helps. I'm in no rush to finish these, so they can comfortably be left on the side until I fancy picking them up and doing a little bit here and there.

I also picked up the Envoy Vanguard deal from Crooked Dice. These great-looking alien crustaceans will make perfect villains for a whole host of games, 7TV not least amongst them. As with the Dr. Who figures, they've just had a couple of basecoats so far.

In other news, I've signed up for Asrai.org's summer contest - a Tale of X Gamers where each entrant builds and paints a 1000pt Warhammer Fantasy army over the course of three months. I'm going to be using it as motivation to continue with my Skaven in an effort to get back on track with my painting and modelling. More on that in the next post!

From the Shadows...

Quickly painted up one of Clan Eshin's best; this should give Paul a nasty surprise next time his Vampire tries to tear through my Clanrats!

In other news, work has begun on the next batch of Clanrats in the wake of yet another loss to Paul's Undead on Monday. It was a close run thing, but all his new toys proved to be too much for Queek Greyclaw yet again. The one good thing to take away is that I think I'm learning to use the army a lot better (even though I'm losing). I've not changed my list at all since our first game and I've been getting better performances each game. I've reached the stage now though where I can see what needs changing, and what would work better based on how I've been using the army. More on that in a future post...

Go-Slow Month

It looks like April is going to be a slow month again. Maybe it's the bad weather putting a damper on my motivation? Maybe the new year enthusiasm takes three months to wear off? Either way, things are on a go-slow, so there's not much getting done on the hobby front. I do have one thing to show though, a project that's been in the background for a month or so (started during the build-up to Alumwell/WMMS)

A week or two before the WMMS, March's edition of Wargames Illustrated came out. In it was the return of Paul Davies' "How to" articles, and this one happened to be 'How to make a Watermill'. I read it, and instantly thought what a great addition a watermill might make to our Thirty Years' War display game. All other projects were dropped as I began carving out foamboard, balsa wood, lollipop sticks and coffee stirrers in a frantic effort to build a watermill before the WMMS.

As you can guess by the complete lack of a watermill, I didn't get it finished it time for the show but I've not given up on it. I've been quietly plugging away at it in the background. It's still not complete, but I thought it was about time I showed off my efforts (and it's a convenient way to fill out the blog in what is otherwise an unproductive month...)

Various views of the mill building; foam board walls constructed
following Mr. Davies' templates, with balsa and coffee stirrer timbers

Another few shots with the roof included. The roof is just thick (2mm) card,
with individual tiles cut from cereal boxes and glued in overlapping rows.

The roof as it currently stands, just over halfway to constructed. 

So there you go. Cutting and glueing all those individual tiles for the roof is pretty time consuming, and I'd certainly have gone for a quicker method if I hadn't already passed the 'deadline' for the WMMS, but I actually prefer not having to rush this stage because I think the individual tiles give a much better look overall.  It's also oddly therapeutic gluing little tiles in little rows!

Of course, the astute amongst you (assuming you're not all just bots, and there actually are real people reading this...) will have noticed the lack of an actual waterwheel. Well, that's the "difficult" bit to be honest, because I need to measure it up so that the mill as a whole sits seamlessly on the terrain boards and so far I've not got round to it. I will eventually need to make the wheel if we intend to use this for future games, but in the meantime I can carry on with the tiling...

Long Time No Post

Well, it's been a while. A couple of busy weeks, followed by a couple of weeks with a complete lack of motivation to do pretty much anything.

I haven't been completely idle though. I did manage to finish painting those Moria Goblins I started a while back.

These take me up to 83 models painted so far this year, which keeps me ahead of schedule for the inevitable  drop-off in productivity that I'll experience later in the year (or indeed, the drop-off that I'm experiencing now!) Next up, I should really get back to more Skaven. I've got the next batch of 40 Clanrats waiting to go, and the Goblins have provided me with a nice distraction to get me ready to go back to the rats.