Warlock of Firetop Mountain

Not that one

I had a cunning plan the other day. Holdenstein Jr. is terrible at reading, and really terrible at reading aloud to me. It's not that he's actually bad at reading, he's quite good, he just hates it. Then while trundling around blogs followed by blogs that I follow I came across an interesting genre. The Fighting Fantasy playthrough blog. Honestly I don't know who came up with the idea first, but it is both simultaneously genius and the saddest thing I have ever seen.

That gave me an idea: I have a box full of game books upstairs and a son who won't read to me, so I embarked on playing Warlock of Firetop Mountain with Holdenstein Jr. The rules were simple. No cheating (except in the annoying Maze of Zagor- and only then to ignore irritating repositions), re-roll on skill of 7 or 8, Holdenstein Jr. gets to roll the dice for us in combat, and every couple of entries we swap reading duties. I'll also make the map. Thus the project is both entertaining and informative. I make him add up his attack strength too- that's maths covered as well as English.

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!