So long 2015...

This is the time of the year where like all my fellow bloggers, I feel compelled to telling you all about this past year and what I hope for the year to come...

Elite Venator Leader - The simping hunter

WOOOOOHOOOOO ! I really thought I'd end this year on a bunch of dogs but I just managed to take the time to finish this lovely model !

You might not be familiar with it and none could hold this against you as it's one of those rare confrontation models you couldn't find in any catalogue and which were only available for a limited period in certain places.

A real shame, because it's a very fine model with delicate sculpting and loads of character as you can see !

Dogs of war

Quick post today, just to show you a handful of dogs I've painted for a Mordheim Campaign WE in Febuary. Those dogs are Witch hunter dogs from the Mordheim range and have been very kindly donated by the GM so that I have dogs). I'm going to play my champions of Law as witch hunters and  though I know next to nothing about Mordheim gaming wise, everyone keeps telling me I need as much dogs as I can afford; since I sense they might be super cheezy, I've decided to take a middle ground between 0 and 5  :

Only 2 variants are available so I tried to change the ginger patterns from one to another to add a little variety in the team. They are nice little sculpts although they are ridiculously too big to be normal dogs...

I'll leave you with something a little more punchy to wake you folks up :

More limited edition Santas, Frostgrave and Asgard !

 

It seems Christmas doesn't stop on the 25th of December... which is good. I mean , we can all do with a nice gift or present every now and then right ? Well Just yesterday, I received a very nice gift from the most excellent Stuart Bannister. 

I could have expected it since I sent him the model in the first place but I didn't expect it to arrive just the day after Christmas. Well I could... since the model is Sanity claws after all. Only thing is I hadn't really taken that into account when I sent it to him to paint.

LE Space santa gone bad !

For this season of the year, it's important to choose the right models I think. Having already failed at painting my LE Sanity Claws, I've decided to get cracking on the LE6 Space Santa since it's a sci-fi model and that the sculpt is far more delicate and crisp than its chaotic counterpart...

Psycho Sam ! The Oldhammer Punk.

I'm really glad to present you this model right here. If you don't know the model, it's quite normal as only people who attended Oldhammer events in UK, USA and France (maybe some other countries too) had the opportunity to get it (Extra special thanks to Airbornegrove for sending us frenchies some to celebrate our first french gathering, you truly are a gent sir).

The model was designed by the legendary Mark Copplestone and commissioned by some of our fellow north american Oldhammerers along some other members of the Oldhammer forum.

Concept sketch by Heofthreenames

See, this is exactly the kind of initiatives that makes me love this little world of ours. Some people decide to spend time, money and energy just to make sure we lazy asses get a free miniature when we attend our Oldschool convention. I'd also point that the people who made this happen didn't speak about it much or tried to brag. Reminds me of a saying "Those who speak the least do the most".

So let's talk about the painting now. First of all, I have to say the model is particularly detailed and precise. It's an amazing sculpt and the casting was hopefully up to the level of Mark Copplestone's work. I'm not usually happy of my painting but for once I'm quite chuffed and on top of that I had a very very pleasant painting time. It's the kind of models that really lift you up technically.

Since a couple of versions are already out I had to choose my own scheme.

The model being initiated by american members, I kind of wanted to give a little nod towards the origins of the model. 

Chaos Snakemen (again) !

Yes, again because I've already painted some of those before ! Don't remember ? That was when I took even worse photos and had my backdrop upside down ! Look at this.

Anyway, today's subject is new snakemen. Why would I paint 7 more of them ? Well long story short, I read on the french FB Oldhammer page that someone was looking to have his snakemen painted. As I was on a painting roll at the time and sort of remembered having fun on those, I took the job...

Lady Greiss - Imperial Noble and a very good reason to buy more models

Here's Lady Greiss, another wonderful model from the Colony 87 range sculpted by the talented Michael Anderson and initiated by the wonderful Jon/Axiom.
As for all other models of the range, this one was a real pleasure to paint though due to some poor choices I've had to suffer at the end of the painting process.

Concept sketches by Will Beck

Rogue Quest level Eleven - The exodite ranger

So this is it. The end of the first part of the Rogue Quest for me ! I'm reaching the 6th model and today's entry is the ranger ! 

The ranger is an essential class to my eyes in any good dungeoneering party and to represent that class I had plenty of opportunities. The 40k universe has plenty of scouts of all kinds and Jes Goodwin has sculpted some excellent eldar scouts. Of course eldars are a must as rangers as the ranger class is usually one favoured by wood elves. But if I had to choose an equivalent for wood elves in 40k, it would undoubtedly have to be an exodite...

Good thing is I just happened to have a model looking like an exodite scout and commissioned by no other than Axiom with whom I happen to share this Rogue Quest project ! The opportunity was too good to ignore.

The model is really nice and was sculpted by Patrick Keith (or Kirsten Dunst, don't know, always tend to mix those 2...). I had to slightly alter the model to adapt it to what I wanted though.

Design sketch by Axiom

For some reason I had decided I wanted the model to represent a female eldar. Just because. The pose was not spectacularly feminine and no real physical trait helped. That wasn't a problem though.

Thank you my space Ashigaru ;) - Battle systems scenery

Quick post for today, I just wanted to let you people know that the little contest I took part in some time ago did came with a reward !

You can see HERE all the entries that were submitted and in all honesty I can consider myself lucky to have grabbed the 14th place out of 83 contestants if I'm correct. Out of the impressive lots available I managed to get some Battle systems scenery from their scifi project :

Two sheets of punchable pieces to build a mix of crates, consoles and cryotubes. Looks like the perfect way to add some decoration in an empty room.

Skullz Adeptus mechanicus familiar

Today will be a short post for a short model ! This model is an adeptus mechanicus familiar coming from the Skullz limited edition set.

It's one of those little models I adore because he's holding no weapons and is just meant to add some depth (well and carry books and purify blood for his master).

The set is described as sculpted as sculpted by the Perrys but I'd have sworn there was some Gary Morley amongst those...

The set is quite popular and goes for good money most of the times but I was lucky to benefit from the generosity of a fellow hobbyist who sent me one just because he's nice !

Rogue Quest Level Nine : The Druid

I'm reaching the end of this little journey in the future dungeoneering Axiom and I wanted to explore as this is the 5th out of 6 models I'm about to present you. This new entry is the druid. The druid was introduced as a subclass of clerics with specifities that made him a little more characterful. 

To represent that kind of character in the grim darkness of the far future and especially in the depths of the underhives. Thing is, I actually didn't pick the class first but the model, I was considering doing a cleric as it's a type of characters I fancy but I couldn't find any suitable model (Alex did find a very good model though). That's when I fell upon this confrontation dogskin (who would be replaced by ratskins in Necromunda) which I 'd had for some time without knowing what to do of it.

Like many confrontation models, this one is very small and delicate and if you look closely the base somehow seems a bit too large while the arms are also slightly too big for the model. With thiselement and the fact he's wearing a dog pelt, I knew I could use him for something really nice. I gave him a unassured pose on purpose to show combat with guns is not necessarily is forte. The druid's power lies somewhere else...

Fresh blood and a tutorial for the champions of Law !

So here we have 3 more members for my warband of champions of Law ! Since I've been painting those for some time now, I'm thinking about making a break to avoid making this a habit or something tiring and since I'm making a pause I thought I'd do a little tutorial on how I paint them. Make no mistake, they're not up to high standards or anything and I intended them to be speed paints from the start but I find the recipes I used served the purpose of having a nice warband rapidly so why not share ?

Grudge Vs Hate - A 2nd edition Warhammer 40k battle report

For me, this hobby mostly consists in modelling toy soldiers and sharing it via blogging and forums and all and meeting nice people online is definitely one of the good parts. The best part of it all though is getting to meet those people for real. Yeah, like in the other real life, the one without a keyboard and all and with handshakes and drinks instead !

Well thanksto the Oldhammer groups on facebook (both french and English speaking) I was finally able to get to play with Goulven a proud defender of the 2nd edition of warhammer 40k (along his gaming partner Pestilus). For once I didn't have to go to Canada or England to get a game !

Being renowned for his Squat army and being the poor "chaotic-to-the-core" soul that I am, the choice of armies was very simple we just needed to agree on a given number of points.

I managed to come up with a 2000 points list using everything I had painted so far (and for which I had painted the terminators.

Facing the squats

The table was set in advance and looked suitably oldschool with the grass everywhere with great details and scenic elements like the windmill and the watch tower.

Like always Battle started before the first bullet was even shot...

Rogue Quest level Seven : Mad Dog Finnegan the Barbarian

Level 7 of the Rogue Quest ! This time is my turn after Jon's brilliant bard and I decided to go into the heavy weight category this time. 

As you know, the barbarian is one iconic type of adventurers renowned for his delicacy and very refined approach of things...

Yeah OK, laugh all you want, wether you want it or not, the barbarian is the hero we all admire as kids because you can immediately understand what he's all about, generally one goal, and almost one way to achieve it : violence. When violence doesn't solve a problem for a barbarian, it basically just means he hasn't used enough of it yet.

Rogue Trader Chaos - Traitor Terminators

 Nothing like a deadline to get things done ! A week ago these guys weren't even on my schedule but a last minute appointment for a game next Week End decided otherwise and here they are !

Those models are meant to join the ranks of a growing chaos force for which I've foolishly decided to collect all the models as you can see HERE and HERE.

If you're not familiar with the models (quite unlikely but not impossible after all) they are the first chaos terminators sculpted during the first edition of Warhammer 40k by the talented Jes Goodwin who had already sculpted a goo load of their imperial counterparts.

Picture taken from Solegend

The Galactic Bastard, rogue trader extraordinaire

Today's entry is one that has had to wait for a long time to get completed. This model has been made for a facebook Hobby group called the Emporium of Rogue Dreams, focusing on wargaming in retro sci-fi universes like Rogue Trader, 2000AD publications, Starwars and others of the kind.

The Emporium keeper Mark has kindly had this model sculpted by the excellent Shane Hoyle as a group special miniature.

Now I've had the chance to get my hands on an early cast but the model came with 4 different heads :

All of them being excellent, there was no way I'd leave any aside so I decided to magnetise both heads and body in order to be able to change heads as I saw fit. 

My history with magnets is an old one as you can see with my Chaos army or my Kaleb Daark.

Problem was I was short on magnets so I ordered some and painted the body meanwhile... that was back in August !

Long story short : I finally got my magnets the other day and could finally complete the model !

Rogue Quest level Five : The paladin !

So here we are, time for level five of the Rogue Quest ! After my wizard and Axiom's Rogue, it's time to get on with some new characters !

This week's entry is special for me, I've always had a great fondness for Paladins as previously discussed. They are one of the most iconic and characterful classes you can have and because of the many rules and limitations for them, you have to be in tune with that sort of characters they are to fully enjoy them.

Interpretation by Olivier Ledroit, see how he's lawfully good AND gets the (dirty) work done ?

The ideal paladin is obviously a lawful good warrior that fights for the good of all, always puting his own safety and personal interest in second place. A good paladin will usually take the greatest care of his gear and body as they're his tools to do his duty. A paladin will usually have a great constitution along a high charisma. To represent that I knew I had to use a space marine but didn't which one to use. I've considered using a terminator at some point to represent their tanking role but that looked silly amongst very lightly armoured models so I opted for this one piece Space marine designed by Bob Naismith (IIRC). It had just the perfect heroic pose I was looking for !

Champions of Law - The seventh son and the roman blade

You guys know it's important to have the right soundtrack...

So here we are, it's Sunday and as usual I have a little more champions of Law done ! This one had to be special though as it was the 7th member of the warband I'd present (along with the 8th). Now I really think I'm not superstitious because I do not believe in any of the non sense associated with numbers and all but I DO follow the same rules as supertistious people because I'm a pathetic Maniac.

If none of this makes sense to you, it's perfectly normal, just accept that the 7th model HAD to be special and what better way to make a special model than to use a limited edition ?

As you may know, the 7th model (on the left of the previous picture) is the Warlock :

The Warlock was the Fighting Fantasy magazine published in the mid 1980's and while I won't tell the history of it again, I can at least state that the title and one of its covers lead to a miniature along the famous Amazone Gothique :

Variations on a theme : Pilots for warhammer 40000

Today's is a symbolic post since it's my 200th ! I'm making progress for my model to celebrate the 200th follower of this blog (model has just been primed) so celebrations are all going well !

I'd like to come back on a bunch of models I painted in a rush for my Rogue Trader game at Octogône, 

I wanted to have a bunch of pilots as they make nice supporting models and good potential NPCs in games. I used them as objectives in our game and it was nice to see players interact with them !

The intersting part about this group is the model selection I think. I'm not very selective about models I paint in general, my fancy often goes to older models because I enjoy painting them more than I enjoy painting modern ones but I find nice ones everywhere, whatever the maker and whatever the age. SO I thought it would be fun to paint 3 versions of a same concept but with very different models to see  :

- If painting alone can tie different styles

- which kind of models I like most

Rogue Quest Level Three : The Wizard

First of all, let me suggest a suitable soundtrack for this post with either a classic :

OR a suitably grim dark tune :

So here we are, already at the third level of the Rogue Quest ! After starting with my fighter for level 1 and after Jon/Axiom's barbarian for level 2 here is my entry for level 3 : The wizard !

The obvious way to represent a wizard in warhammer 40k is probably to use a psyker of any sort so I decided to pick one of the few I have. I'm lucky to have a good load of eldar psykers of all sorts but I have relatively few human psykers and the only one I had which looked heroic enough was this charming psyker from Bob Olley.

As you may know, I've become very fond of his models over the years for they often prove to be unexpectedly pleasant to paint. When I say unexpectedly, I mean I often struggle to understand what's what when it's unpainted but I usually discover the model as I paint. This makes the process very organic and enjoyable, something I've one-sidedly decided to call the "Bob Olley effect". I'm pretty sure most people who are not keen on his sculpts would change their minds the minute they actually paint one.

Since this model is meant to represent my wizard in cyber dungeon crawling stories, I wanted him to look a little different from the usual imperial psykers.

The wizard in a group is often stereotyped and amongst all the usually associated images, this kind of fellow was something I wanted to suggest in a discrete way :

Battle reports : Vengeance of the Lichemaster and Rogue Trader

These freaks are here to party !

Well it's quite unusual for me but for once I can tell you I managed to play with some those models I seem to paint for no other purpose than keeping my mind off of the utter non-sense of our world.

That's right, you read it perfectly well, I got some games in this WE and this was fun AND I didn't have to go to Canada or England to do it !

Pour une fois que j'ai pas a me bouger au Canada ou en Angleterre pour pouvoir jouer à de l'ancien il fallait saisir l'occasion !

Just look at how awesome that was :

Champions of Law : Lord Aquila and elf

Another sunday past and some more reinforcements for my Realm of Law warband ! (greatly helped by me beeing sick and staying at home all WE...)

I'm adding 2 new members for the warband and this time I think the style evolves a bit. they are not chaotic as some of the others but both of them have been sculpted by the talented Jes Goodwin.

First on the left is Lord Aquila from the Heroic fighters of known world set :

Picture taken from Solegend

BORACHORKS !

You may remember I once wrote I needed a drunk for my 40k games, well I actually meant I needed drunkS because let's be honest, while being drink alone has got to be the saddest thing ever, being drunk in good company can lead you to... well unexpected levels of stupidity or fun (sometimes both mixed).

After getting my hands on a couple of nice old models I thought the occasion was too good not to expand my very little collection of civilians for Rogue Trader.

The 3 models on the right are part of the Orc villager set by Trish Morrison while he one on the left is a madboy by Bob Olley. As you can se both ranges are full of character and are just perfect to make NPCs in games. I could actually get plenty more drunken orcs if I needed...

Rogue Quest Level One : The Fighter

"Just what is Rogue Quest ? 

JB, I want to know what Rogue Quest is ?

Hey what's that thing? I have no idea but I want to be part of it !"

Ahaha, calm down my friends, I am going to tell you about Rogue Quest right away, I have no will to torture the millions of you any further with that doubt.

I'm pretty sure most of you will have played some form of dungeon bashing at some point in your life, be it Dungeons and Dragons or any other RPG, Heroquest (and its advanced form) or Space crusade (and its advanced form too), Space Hulk, you name them...

Illustration by Tony Ackland

Well I've had this idea for some time now to go back to the roots of dungeoneering but in the grim darkness of the far future. I know there already are some games to do just that (Space crusade and Space Hulk) but they lack something really important to me : Characters.

For me, the base of a good dungeon bashing is the motley crew which for some sordid reason decide to unite to rampage a dungeon.

Now I want that in the future now, I want a squat along an eldar with a marine leading the way in the corridors of a crashed space craft, the gutters of the underhive or the ruins of an old bunker. I want a bunch of heroes with their very own characteristics to seek treasures and encounter weird creatures.

I've talked about this idea here and there and one of my esteemed colleague Jon/Axiom has come up with the brilliant idea to make a group project between us to build a group of 6 adventurers based on the archetypes we all know :

- Barbarian

- Bard

- Cleric

- Fighter

- Paladin

- Ranger

- Thief

- Wizard

Inspired by the impressive work of Sho3box and Mr Saturday with their Judgement day project, we've decided to do something similar by painting a new model for our party one after the other.

That's how the Rogue Quest project originated ! Since we both are great fans of confrontation, it was only natural to replace our own dungeon quest in this setting.

For now, I'm still working on rules to play this and the choices so far are :

- Using Advanced Hero Quest (AHQ) rules and build characters and monsters based on Rogue trader and 40k in general.

- Using Rogue Trader rules with the dungeon generation rules from AHQ

- Using SPace hulk and giving more flavour to each character

So far I'm leaning for the first 2 options with a slight preference for the first one but this will have to be playtested and will be the object of future posts.

But let's get back to the point of this all : Characters !

To start this project, I somehow needed an evocative character, one that made sense. The perfect opportunity was this marine scout I had customised by the great Kevin Adams at BOYL this year. Not only is this model unique but it's also one meant to represent me and therefore is the perfect model to play in such a sort of game to me !

I won't lie, using a model Kev sculpted in front of me with a very dear friend and cider around while I could see Tony Ackland in the distance is absolutely priceless for the pathetic maniac I am. The model was one I got from Sho3box on the day and it was insane to see Kev build a whole replica of my poor self in the matter of minutes at the end of the day (I was lucky enough to be one of the very last to get my face sculpted) all of that while chatting with us and drinking. The final cherry on the cake is that all the funds gathered are meant for charity.  How right get this get ?

Levels of awesomeness have reached critical figures here.

Aenuroid - The sword of grim darkness

Aenuroid, the cyber assassin

And here's another model done for a little group challenge ! This time there was no choice for me but to participate since I'm partly responsible for it taking place !
I've had an Aenur model for ages like many of us who once bought the WD that had him in it and like many people, I've never had a go at him because I simply didn't really know what to do with it...
That was until I bought the Adeptus mechanicus Skitari box and decided to try the simplest of conversions on him : a head swap.

For some reason I really liked the idea of making the conversion as simple as possible and the fact I've been playing Dishonored a lot may have been an influence...

Champions of Law - covered and naked dementia

After the 2 previous champions of Law I painted, I thought I could paint 2 in a row this time... well without a surprise it took me a little longer which means I couldn't get them all done on Sunday as usual...

In the last post about this warband, Two esteemed painting buddies, namely Jon/Axiom and Nico both suggested the same miniature to join this warband. Honestly, who am I to oppose such talented guys and clearly men of taste who pick one of the nice Jes Goodwin chaos warriors ? Good thing is I had the model so it was just a matter of getting it on a hex base really.