Warhammer 40k #1 - Kill Team Michaelus WIP

My 197 point Blood Angels Kill Team is made up from a 6 man Sternguard Veteran Squad.

Veteran Sergeant Michaelus

The leader of the Kill Team, Veteran Sergeant Michaelus is armed with a Power Sword to hunt down any model on the board and not allow it an armour save. If I were to a campaign with this Kill Team I would make give Micaelus the Been there, Seen it, Done it Leader Trait to allow him to become a fourth specialist for the Kill Team specialising in combat. Specialising in combat would allow Michaelus to become a Warrior Adept gaining him an extra point in Weapon Skill.

Specialist Malthus

Guerilla Specialist Malthus, armed with a Heavy Flamer will be stalking through the ruins of the board using the Move Through Cover rule to quickly get the Heavy Flamer in range.

Specialist Turcio

Specialist Turcio is armed with a Storm Bolter and is a Weapon Specialist gaining the Reaping Volley rule which allows him to fire the two shots from the Storm Bolter at different targets. Combined with his specialist Sternguard ammunition I believe this could be a useful combo.

Specialist Danton

Specialist Danton is armed with a Missile Launcher in the hope of being able to fire at closely grouped models with his blast attacks. Danton is an Indomitable Specialist and so has gained the Relentless rule to be able to manoeuvre and both fire his weapon at full Ballistic Skill.

Brother Travis

Brother Travis' role is to lay supporting fire for the advancing parts of the Kill Team, he is armed with a Combi-Melta so is able to take care of any enemy armour that may appear on the battlefield.

Brother Julius 

Brother Julius like Brother Travis is armed just with a Combi-Melta.

My first day of painting consisted of getting the red Power Armour's colour correct. I started by spraying them Mepheston Red then washing Agrax Earthshade, from here I re-layered the Mepheston Red onto the flat open areas of the Power Armour. Finally to finish the Power Armour I did an edge highlight of Evil Sunz Scarlet on any edge that you can see from directly above the model.

Specialist Turcio, Specialist Danton, Brother Travis, Bother Julius,
Specialist Malthus and Veteran Sergeant Michaelus

I just took a quick crappy photo to be able to document my first day of work on the Kill Team, more to come soon.

Lord of the Rings SBG #2 - Dwarf Showcase

Recently I got back one of my LotR armies from a friend that so kindly offered to paint for me. This force was the first one I collected after coming back to LotR SBG early last year. The basis of this army was inspired by the example 500 point army using the Durin's Folk selections from the Khazad-Dum sourcebook. It was easy to expand from that example list by adding in the few left over models from the Warriors box and some other command models like the Horn Blower and the legendary Gimli son of Gloin.

Hopefully, soon I will have my Moria Goblins finished so I can run some games pitting the two forces against each other for the dominion of some Dwarven Hold.

Command Group, Dwarf King, Gimli and Bodyguard

I have split the force up into 4 groups to use on the tabletop. The Command group will be flanked on both sides by Group 1 and 2 whilst the Support group lay down supporting fire with the Ballista from a point of high ground.

Group 1, including Dwarf Captain and Standard Bearer

Group 2, including extra archer support

Support Group, including Horn Blower

Frostgrave #3 - Skeletons and Imps!

My first lot of creatures of Frostgrave turned out nice for such simple work. The Skeletons are GW's Tomb Kings Skeleton Warriors and the Imps are the goblins from GW's Escape From Goblin Town. These just happened to be mini's that I have knocking around the hobby cupboard that fortunately fits in the Frostgrave theme.

I have never liked those goblins from Escape From Goblin Town and I know it's not GW's fault that they look awful seeing as they had to design models to accompany the films aesthetic which I thought was poor the second they turned up in the film. Fortunately, I feel they work quite well as Imps / Lesser daemons due to how varied they all look physically.

6 Imps

Although I used mostly the newer Vampire Counts Skeleton Warriors because they look better against most other Warhammer mini's I love these goofy Tomb Kings Skeletons mainly for their cheesy grins. They defiantly do not fit in the semi-serious Age of Sigmar aesthetic they certainly have a home in my games of Frostgrave due to the slight comicalness their outlandish poses and big grins emanate.

8 Skeletons

I'm still working on some Armoured Skeletons and they are very close to completion and next would like to work on some animals like Giant Rats, Wolves and Bears.

Lord of the Rings SBG #1 - The Mines of Moria WIP

At the beginning of the summer, I was lucky enough to find a new in box Lord of the Rings Strategy Battle Game, Mines of Moria beginner box. I first owned this over 10 years ago and have since lost my original copy. When I saw this box at an affordable £30 I instantly decided to put on hold the hobby purchase I had been saving for that week and rushed home for a large dose of nostalgia.

Contents of Mines of Moria box game.

The Lord of the Rings SBG was always my favourite GW game growing up but unfortunately in my local club nobody ever played it, instead favouring almost exclusively WH40k. In the years since I have tried several times to restart this game and recently managed to pick up all of the old Sourcebooks in the hope that I could one day play through all of the scenarios in order and follow the adventure of Frodo and the other heroes on the tabletop from The Shire to the Cracks of Doom.

I have played through this box a few times now since purchase and as you would expect is quite simple to play and heavy in The Fellowships favour. Rather than make something up myself to change this instead I'm going to from this point play this box using the Balin's Tomb scenario from The Fellowship of the Ring sourcebook. This version of the scenario adds in 2 Goblin Captains for the Evil side, with these added heroes it gives the Goblins that little bit of added punch and dice manipulation to try and counter the 9 heroes of The Fellowship.

In regards to the hobby side of this box, I have managed to complete 6 of the 24 Goblins while the other 18 are in various stages of completion but should not take me too long if put some time aside for them.

6 of 24 Moria Goblins

I remember my original Fellowship models from this box looked just awful so I aim to redeem myself, this time around. I have for some reason two sets of the plastic Fellowship so am going to do a practice set of models then a set to use in the game with the second lot. Balin's tomb is something I'm also considering building as you get most of the terrain needed in the Mines of Moria box anyway, all I would need is a slab of wood in the correct size for the room and some polystyrene to make the walkways around the edge of the room and walls.

Frostgrave #2 - Checklist!

As a sort of side project for whenever I want to build or paint something that isn't Age of Sigmar related I'm going to be working on building a gaming kit that will enable my local group to play Frostgrave. I bought this ruleset on its release and although I've been itching to play did nothing with it which I really regret.

Before I get to creating warbands I'm going to build literally everything else needed to play Frostgrave as everybody who wargames have a handful of fantasy mini's so they really aren't the priority. After a thorough read of the main rulebook, I made myself a checklist of scenery and monsters I'll need to play everything in the book.

To-do checklist

I managed to print it off in A3 to stick up on my wall to keep me progressing. Now to start checking items off!

Age of Sigmar #9 - The Backlog

Every hobbyist has one, the dreaded backlog. Piles and piles of unbuilt, unpainted models and always so terrifyingly overwhelming when you count it up. To the left of my desk, I have a set of IKEA shelves full to the brim with rulebooks, novels, paints, dice, counters and my backlog.

I have decided to make a list of everything I have to finish in my Age of Sigmar backlog to hopefully stop the weak future me from buying anything more.

40 Skeleton Swordsmen

40 Skeleton Spearmen

40 Skeleton Bowmen

2 Wight Kings

10 Black Knights

10 Hexwraiths

1 Cairn Wraith

1 Black Coach

2 Mortis Engines

Nagash

Mannfred Mortarch

Arkhan Mortarch

2 Archai

3 Necromancers

60 Zombies

5 Blood Knights

1 Bretonnian lord on pegasus

20 Knights

40 Archers

50 Men-at-Arms

3 Pegasus Knights

Paladin

Damsel 

Shelf 3, aka the GA:Death backlog dump

1 Treelord

10 Tree-Revenants

32 Dryads

1 Branchwych

1 Branchwraith

3 Kurnoth Hunters

15 Liberators
5 Retributors
6 Prosecutors
1 Knight-Venator
1 Lord-Relictor

1 Warrior Priest

1 Mighty Lord of Khorne

12 Blood Warriors

45 Bloodreavers

1 Khorne Icon

1 Khorne Monster and handler

2 Realm Gates

1 Garden of Morr

1 Wyldwood

Arcane Ruins

DO NOT BUY MORE THINGS ETHAN!

DO NOT BUY MORE THINGS ETHAN!

DO NOT BUY MORE THINGS ETHAN!

(don't ask me about the other games I play)