Getting back in the saddle

For many very dull reasons, mostly related to a promotion at work and all the extra work that that entails, I've not been doing much painting or gaming in the last six months. That's changed a little, as work gets a bit easier and also I have been re-invigorated by a boy's gaming weekend and doing some gaming, especially with the Lord of the Rings LCG with my son (and solo- but that's not as good).

When I'm re-energised for gaming I always get painting, even when the games don't necessarily use miniatures. So for your delectation I present:

Some Lord of the Rings Wood Elves, which are quite nice, but they do suffer from the same problems as all of those LotR scale plastics, namely that the faces are a little bland in the sculpt.

LotR Wood Elves

Then Gildor Inglorion, who wasn't quite finished in the photo above. If you don't recognise him from the film, he should have rescued the Hobbits while they were leaving The Shire, but he got cut. Also if you don't recognise him, then you should read the book. I believe that the miniature might be singing ;)

Gildor Inglorion

And finally some good old Space Marines that have been sitting on my workbench for ages. These Vanguard Veterans suffer from the same problem that the Sternguard do in that they are a bit too busy for their own good. They are also the final miniatures that were bought for me by Mrs. Holdenstein at the launch of the last Space Marine Codex. My Hall of Shame has resisted the particular indignity of not having been painted while an entire edition goes by. The eagle-eyed amongst you will also notice a slight painting error that I only noticed in the picture, and which I am repairing at the moment.

Vanguard Veterans

Once again, I hope that it won't be too long again between updates.

Gary Mawlock

I've had a week off work, so managed to finish my Mawlock in between the weather being good enough to lay Mrs. H's Patio. Basing was a bit of a brain ache, as it would have eaten anything organic, so I've gone for something quite minimal. I call him Gary. Gary Mawlock.

Relic entertainment

I had a game of 6^th Edition 40K last night down at the Wakefield Warriors club. It was a marine on marine affair, but very much livened up by playing a mission that’s new to sixth. We were playing relic, with the short table edge deployment type, which was nice and new. Both my opponent and I were getting a bit more confident with the rule set now, and although we forgot to roll for night fighting in the first turn and got thoroughly confused about vehicle and transport moving, the rules galloped along at a fair old lick. I’m pretty sure that unless you play two armies with mixed saves in every single unit (Space Wolves I’m looking at you) then they play a little faster than the 5^th edition rule set. In the end I think that I lost the mission (5 points to 1) due to not combat squadding my tactical squads and feeding the little combat squads to his Deathstar unit. This thing was a destructive force of nature, featuring 5 lightning claw terminators, a chaplain and Pedro Kantor, from Land Raider Crusader. That’s +1A, Re-roll hits and Wounds at AP3 on the turn that they charged. The Lightning Claws guys delivered 16 Wounds on to my tactical squad. Ouch. What I should have done (and normally do) is split the squads, leave the heavy weapons at the back and feed the terminators half a squad at a time, to keep them away from the relic. 

The other mistake I made was that I deployed my Sternguard in drop pod badly, to take out one of my opponent’s scoring units. Not sure what I should have done, but I definitely didn’t do it right. Perhaps I should have dropped them further to one flank, so that they dragged more of my opponent’s units out of position.

Relic was fun and the secondary objectives work nicely, and the deployment style was fine too. It gives a narrow front and deep deployment zone, although you can’t get too far away from the enemy, especially now that all vehicles can go 18” in a turn if they want to. That gap is very easily closed in just two turns for assault armies.

And a bit more painting

The release of 6th Ed. 40k has been positive in  that it's persuaded me to paint. Here are some pics!

Brother-Sergeant Chronus

 So first up we have Chronus, who was a bit fiddly, but ultimately quite a nice job, after removing all his Ultramarines insignia.

Aegis Defence Line

 Next, another 40K painting job, the Aegis defence lines, which can be used as a fortification in the new edition. Don't know if I will, but of course they can go in normal terrain.

Gobber Bodger

And finally a Gobber Bodger. I love this model dearly. Would love to know who sculpted him, but PP don't seem to want you to know who sculpts their models. Nice though. It was painted using the new GW ork triad of paints, which are very nice indeed.

Next up, Kara Slone from Warmachine and some Vanguard Vets for 40K

Finally some painting!

Those twin perils that stalk most wargamers over thirty have well and truly struck over the last couple of months. I speak of course of work and family. Still I managed to do a couple of things. Firstly get a little (with the emphasis on little) painting done and secondly I managed to meet up with my old school chums Dave and Duncan for a little bit of 40K at Dave's parents house (Yes we are all nearly 40 and none of us live any where near Dave's parents). I'm sorry to say that I had a few bad matchups, with my Nids taking on Space Wolves and Dark Eldar (which was utterly soul destroying) and my cleansing Flames marines (that's vanilla to you) taking on some Thousand Son's. Twinned with some poor tactics I got 3 losses. Still. The games the thing and everyone had a very good time.

So on with the pics.

 A Gimli painted by Holdenstein Jr

 A Trygon that's nearly done - any thoughts on basing well received

And a finished Heldenhammer. I might just love this model more than my children...

WIP 'em out

In the absence of proper updates, here's a bit of what they call hobby progress. Although if it's not finished it's not progressed that well.
Starting off with a few 40K models, here's Sargent Chronos, with all his Ultramarine bit removed. The bit in the middle of his chest Aquilla is a Maltese Cross from the Venerable Dreadnought loincloth. He's probably the closest to being fininshed.

Also We have the Heldenhammer

And Bloody Reaver from Dreadfleet. Nice models, but hard work and fiddly!

What we've been painting

A bit of a family painting session here. I have been painting Tyranids and I am currently working on a magnetised Hive Tyrant. These are my last efforts...

Holdenstein Jr. fancied a go at a Moria goblin, and it worked pretty well..

And finally Holdenstein Mk III wanted a go too. For you Tommy, this war is over. This is what happens to the enemies of the Imperium.

MkIII is only four, so give him some slack