Wraithbone is growing nicely.

My Farseer has been repaired and final touches of the conversion finished (hopefully the green stuff will look better once I have paint on the model). I think I still have a lot to learn with green stuff.

What I have put together so far and what is primed. The second squad is actually almost finished now. 1 more wraith lord, 2 more war walkers, and maybe another 10 wraithguard and I'll have everything I need to finish my army. As a side note, work on my avatar is still under way... maybe more in the next update.

Finally some paint on my test model. This is closed to my final paint scheme, with a couple modifications. Also after I seal the model I will be going over the bone-white areas and jems with a gloss varnish. We will see what it looks like once the test model is finished and then the rest will be painted shortly after.

Games the past month...

Just some random pictures of games with Jes mainly.
testing out the new missions and still learning the rules. Next images are from a Seize ground mission.
The squads face off from their respective objectives.
my dead pile
Jes' dead pile
End of the game... TIE! lol
it was epic, and Jes' model's pose was priceless. "Bring it eldar scum!"
It was as if it was the moment the Marine was born for.
Afterwords I played against Mr. Doushbag again... wiped me off the board in two turns... I killed one obliterator. And yes that's Kharn the Betrayer and a defiler in a 500 pt game. also the rhino you see in the image was moved sideways the entire game. I didn't know treads moved sideways... but I guess that's how the rules work.
Oh, and he broke my farseer... even with the staff pinned.

Not that I don't mind playing someone who kicks my teeth in sometimes, and I still learn a lot from games with Mr. Doushbag... but seriously, can't we play to have fun and not JUST to win?

First games with the Wraith Army.

Well, last night was the first day of the escalation league. I played Jes twice, and our armies were pretty evenly matched. Fielding only 1 unit of wraithguard (10+ spirit seer) and a Farseer at 500 points, our games just ended up in a melee furball both games. We both learned a few things about the new rules as well as our armies.

Some guy kept wanting to play me, but he seemed like a jerk and I didn't want to leave Jes hanging... so I accepted as long as it would be a 2 vs. 2 game. I should have listened to my instincts. The guy was... well... one of "Those Guys". He had a minimum troop choice with two suped up demon princes who rerolled their missed hits and wounds each phase, had wings (though not represented on the models), and killed my entire force after I moved once. His partner wasn't much better with a space marine special character and an assault squad (no troops, which means his army list was illegal for the league). Jes held on longer than I did and actually managed to do some wounds on one of the demon princes before being wiped out too.

I hate it when people play just to stomp peoples heads in. Especially in an escalation league meant to introduce new players to the rules and encourage them to build an army. At least Jes and I learned a few more things about the new system in the last game (namely the "No Retreat!" rule), and who not to play against from now on.

Jes and I are still stoked about our armies, and we are still planning our next steps (colour schemes, background, purchases, etc).

Well, stress has been barely beaten back by the power of converting and planning.
Jes and I have been steadily working on our 40k armies. With Kublacon a ways off, motivation of another sort has blessed us with a need to get our acts together... an escalation league!

Unfortunately, the escalation league starting at 500 points. Which means I can only play in the initial stages of the league if Aaron Hassle decides I can play without using a force organization chart (which he still hasn't given me a clear answer after asking him about it twice). I'm not the only one with this issue though, so hopefully it will be okay to play with my awesome possum army at such a low level for the next few weeks.

Here are some pictures of my W.I.P....

-Messing around with basing options, and planning my warlock conversions:-The 5 units that will compose my army (minus my eventual titan conversion I have planned for the far future):
-A closer look at my Farseer (Who I will be using as Eldrad, note the staff and the sword):
-Another angle of my Avatar:
-One Warwalker almost finished:
-Last, but least, one of my Wraithlords w/converted Starcannon:

Pirates

Finally a full game of pirates was played by myself, Andy and Jes. We played a 3 player clash of sabers.

Here is my Pirate crew, from left to right:
Zora Zapnova (blowing a kiss)
Robin Bishop
Alissa Hancock (beware her blunderbuss)
Salali (who's name means squirrel in her native tongue)
Rainya "Crimson Angel" Crowe (Captain of the crew, and lucky to boot)
Sarah Smith (Ships first mate, and loyal paymaster)
And last, but not least, Rebecca Black


Jes' Pirate crew


And Andy's Privateers.


After deploying and rushing towards the center of the board to meet in battle, there were many gun shots from pistols, blunderbuss', and muskets. Even a few arrows from my Native, before close combat took over most of the game. Andy's Privateer Captain and my Pirate Captain, "Crimson Angel" fight it out in a duel. My captain having already suffered a wound.

Mostly Andy's crew, Salali fights fer her life on the left, and one of Jes' crew (the partially painted model) fights off two at once.

Another look at the battle, down the alley from the above picture. Sarah and Rebecca fight in a desperate battle with the bulk of Jes' crew as one of andy's crew jions the fight on the right against another of jes' crew.

Another angle on the same fight, after this turns combat has been determined. (dice reprisent jammed guns and guns that need reloading.)


Andy's Captain wins the duel without taking a wound (I forgot about my "lucky" reroll rule, and we all forgot to use any fame or fortune points this game, which could have made the fight more interesting... next time, Gadget, next time...)
The end of the game, after being the under dog for most of the game, I was able to pull a victory after most of Andy's crew and all of jes' remaining crew fled the battle. Only, Andy's Captain remained to face the last three of my crew... who swiftly turned the tide and ran him off. Yay!

Closing thoughts... After figuring out jamming and reloading rules, as well as trying to remember movement restrictions, we had a fun filled evening full of funny and great moments in the game. We just need to remember to use Fame and Fortune points, and remember our captain special abilities. This next week we hope to actually get things under way to start the campaign, and perhaps get another game under our belts to get the rules down.

The plan is to brainstorm on campaign ideas, and we will possibly be playing two player games (instead of our recent three player games), with a rotating story teller each week, taking turns progressing the story line for the other players.

Pirate Basing, and Boat Plans

A couple pictures of ship deck planning and balsa wood measurements.

Basing of my Pirate models, step by step.


A couple of pictures of the Birch Plywood I use for my basing and pricing.


An example of a base in progress, half way trimmed.
Measuring for another plank.

Clipping the base flash into studs, to be inserted into the base.
measure, mark, and drill.

cut slot for the model to fit into.
Measure second slot.
Cut the second slot and glue!
Yay! All done. Now time to prime and paint.

First game of Pirates, and new 40k army

So, two weeks ago, Jes, Andy and I all finally got together for the first time in years and spent some time down at the game store working on miniatures and actually getting a game in of Pirates. Pirates was fun, and even though the rules weren't made for a three person game, we worked it out.

All three of us were excited about actually getting together to play finally, and we have all been talking about Necromunda and 40k as well. Jes has never played Necromunda, but seems very interested, while Andy and I have enough models for necromunda to play a could gangs each (if we ever needed to, heh). I am perhaps the most excited about my new 40k army that I am starting however. Jes and I have decided to each start a new army together, take our time, and make something that's wholly our own in respect to modelling and painting. Taking it slow, we are both working on 1 unit at a time and converting models and painting so that we do not get overwhelmed, while immersing ourselves in the armies of our choice.

Working with Eldar myself, I am making a wraith army, while Jes has returned to the space marines. While trying to figure out what army to play I wanted to do something new, and something with a lower model count, which left out vanilla marines, space wolves, another grot army, eldar rangers, and inquisitorial armies. It really came down to two armies for me... Tyranid Warrior army and Eldar wraith army. As far as I can tell, in the new codex for Tyranids, you can't field as many Warriors as you could have in the past and drawn to the ideas and background of a wraith army, it was an easy choice.

While aquireing my first models for the army, I have been playing around with the idea of creating my own craftworld for the army, or if I wanted to use a current craftworld but with a twist. As a wraith army, I am even converting my warlocks into wraith constructs using the OLD ghost warrior models.
Obviously, having my warlocks as wraith constructs themselves pushes my eldar force into a realm that is more diminished than even the Iyanden Craftworld. Inspired by the style of the wraith constructs and this quote from the most recent codex,
"A few Seers that have travelled along the most distant skeins of possible futures, Eldrad Ulthran foremost amongst them, see a hidden hope. They believe as more and more Eldar leave the mortal coil and become one with the infinity circuits, a new Eldar god grows in power - Ynnead, God of the Dead. They believe that when every last Eldar has died in the final days, Ynnead will awaken and have strength enough to defeat Slaanesh Forever."
I have also chosen to field an avatar converted to look more like a wraith construct, as a representation of the growing power of Ynnead, having replaced the Avatar of Khaine in the craftworld my army comes from.

Again this brings me back to the decision, do I want to make this my own craftworld, or do I want to make my background that of an existing craftworld, but (as mentioned before) the twist of my force coming from the future (which sounds kinda hokey). I plan on using Eldrad Ulthran as my other HQ choice, and planning on copying the style of Phil's Ulthwe Host paint scheme (using a shiney bone color instead of white, along with black). It would make sense that my army could be a representation of a distant future Ulthwe force. On the other hand I was playing with the idea of a new smaller craftworld that had been overrun by Snaanesh deamons who broke through the webway to the craftworld, causing the slaughter of almost the entire craftworld, before beaten back (which would also be a cool conversion idea for basing my models with fallen daemonettes and such).

Choices, choices...

Work in Progress

Currently I am low on finances, so making another warhammer army right now just isn't feasible at the moment. So, considering that I am on a HUGE pirate kick, I have decided to immerse myself in the game 'Legend of the High Seas' (see my links to the right on my blog).

My leader model is usually the model that I convert the most in miniature battle games (though it may be debatable this time with some of the conversion work I have planned, and the ship I plan to build for LotHS). I haven't changed much from the standard I have set for myself, when it came to my captain model.


Taken shortly after most of the actual conversion work was finished, my captain model is based on the Epic Skarre model from Privateer press.

I really need a better camera.



After basing the model with thin ash plywood planking.

Old Conversions.

As a miniature battle gamer, I think I love converting models the most. I love making something unique, something that is entirely mine and original, and making miniatures that other people will 'wow' over.

Who knows if I am actually all that good at converting, but I like to think I am... at least enough so that I keep doing it. Here are some of my old favorites that I've made and still own (older models having been sold unfortunately).

My old Inquisitor model for my Deamon Hunter / Witch Hunter Army for Warhammer 40k.


My Eldar Ranger conversion for 'Inquisitor'.


Several of my models for the 'Path of Glory' style Warhammer Skirmish game that we were going to play, but never did. =(