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28th April 2024: Strip It. Yeah!

In the tabletop hobby, there aren't many things I hate having to do more than painting. However, stripping old paint is certainly one of those things. I think I would prefer to paint all of my armies twice over than to go through much more of this stripping nonsense.

But alas, these models had been waiting patiently to get a darn good strip for over a year, so I thought it was about time it got done.

Into the pot went some Epic Orks, an old Warlord Titan, and the Space Crusade Dreadnought.

After having a couple of good dunks, and after picking at the remaining paint with pins and tweezers, I got them as good as I possibly could.

What weird colours were on that Dreadnought?

What weird colours were on that Dreadnought?

All dunked

All dunked

Time to pick at these little fiddly bits

Time to pick at these little fiddly bits

Up next was the re-assembly, as I really wanted to get them undercoated in a bit of a spraying session that was coming up.

The Warlord and the Dreadnought both needed pinning, as some parts were snapped on their original joints. Typically, once this was all done, I stumbled upon the plasma gun for the Dreadnought in a random bits box. Though this was discovered too late for the stripping, I think it might be ok if I use its original paint as an undercoat, and go over it with somewhat similar colours.

In the spraying session, I got to use some new Colour Forge sprays for the first time. I fucking love these, at least as much as I have used them so far. The matt varnish in particular was very good, and really brought all that Callidus Assassin shininess back under control.

Some assembly required

Some assembly required

Two war machines are no longer legless

Two war machines are no longer legless

Getting some spray down

Getting some spray down


I figured while I'd got the models out to varnish them, I may as well grab some piccies.

Some of these have waited several years for their photo op, so it's about time I did it.

Commissar Anders Krueger

Commissar Anders Krueger

Officer Cohen Maddox

Officer Cohen Maddox

Commissar Harran Loas

Commissar Harran Loas

Officer John Guyman

Officer John Guyman

Officer Killean Blane

Officer Killean Blane

Commissar Lucan Carver

Commissar Lucan Carver

Officer Patton Hillier

Officer Patton Hillier

Officer Patraeus Cosgrove

Officer Patraeus Cosgrove

Officer Talbot Denning

Officer Talbot Denning

Master Of Ordnance Vernon Kean

Master Of Ordnance Vernon Kean

Officer Wolfgang Pierce

Officer Wolfgang Pierce

Callidus Assassin Xenia Koza

Callidus Assassin Xenia Koza


I've got upcoming plans to try and make my own wargaming boards at long last. To help me out with this, I ordered some plaster so that I could make my own modelling compound.

But what did I find when I opened the box?

Yep, that's a damn good split, and clearing all that powder up is not going to be fun. I also need to find some other container to put it in.

Thanks, Amazon.

This thing needed to split

This thing needed to split

11th April 2024: Commissarations

Near the end of February, I finally got my butt in gear and started the task of finishing my Commissars. I had actually started these about 4 years ago after sorting out my other Guard characters, but as usual, my painting motivation fell off a cliff, and it's taken this long to get back to them.

Even this time, it's taken all these extra weeks to get the final details done, as an enormous Final Fantasy VII-shaped distraction landed in my lap.

In addition to the other two Commissars, I decided to give my old Yarrick model an almost totally new coat of paint over its old naff attempt, which I am much happier with.

How I painted Yarrick about 12 years ago

How I painted Yarrick about 12 years ago

Nearly finished the Commissars

Nearly finished the Commissars

Commissars all done

Commissars all done

At some point, I may actually take some proper photos of these Guard characters.

Maybe.

11th February 2024: I Actually Painted Some Things

It's been a long time since I really knuckled down and painted something, but just before Christmas, Scoob's enthusiasm for his new Nid army started to stir the desire in me again.

I first painted some more of the Epic Evil Sunz. Those poor Orks. I just keep teasing them with the possibility of finally being finished, and then move on to something else.

Case in point, rather than carry on with the little Orks, I instead switched my attention to the Callidus Assassin that I'd stripped of paint and shoddy green stuff a few years ago.

To make up for my horrendous first effort at painting this model, I thought I should really try this time, and painted her up about as good as I am capable. It doesn't really mean much, as it's still not great, but I'm happy enough with the end result.

After painting that model, which was my first 40K model in some years, I moved on to something entirely different. For some reason, I felt like painting the character figures from my old copy of Cluedo: Super Sleuth, which is a game I've owned since the 1990s and have never played. At the same time as painting those, I thought I may as well paint the four detectives from the City Of Angels game as well.

All I want for Christmas is the love of painting

All I want for Christmas is the love of painting

It's spraying time

It's spraying time


Here's my Callidus Assassin, Xenia Koza, back and ready for action.

I've only managed a gloss varnish so far, which is why she's so shiny. I'll get around to the matt at some point.

Probably.

Not Lady Deadpool. Honest.

Not Lady Deadpool. Honest.

28th October 2023: Trying 40K 10th

I guess it's all my own fault, but my hope that 2023 would be a big wargaming year has pretty much turned out to be a false hope.

Nevertheless, a couple of weeks back we got the chance to play our first proper wargames of the year.

Up first were two games of the new 40K 10th edition, which were released for free a little while back in the form of basic rulebook and indexes.

In the first game, Gareth got to pull out his own models for the first time, as he's been collecting some Space Wolves. He went up against Scoob's new Tyranids that came from the Leviathan starter set.

There was no use of point values, and two armies that looked roughly equal were chosen. There was also no worrying about proper scenarios or objectives or any of that stuff. We all agreed that we just wanted to see the basic rules in action, to allow the two generals to get into the shooting, chopping and munching as quickly as possible.

At the end of the day, most of the basic troops on both sides had been dealt with, but Gareth conceded that he had little left to deal with the two bigger bugs after losing his Dreadnoughts, so it seemed the Nids had won this first little skirmish.

Nids pile into the forest to take on the Wolves

Nids pile into the forest to take on the Wolves

The day after, I challenged Scoob's Nids with my own Hive Fleet Odium bugs. Though we used the same board, this time we added objectives, and decided we would count up points at the end of each turn depending on how many objectives we held. Then we both promptly ignored this and charged headlong at each other. It just didn't seem right for Nidz to sit there holding objectives.

After just a few turns, I barely had anything left on the board. If I remember right, it was just a single Ravener and a few Termagants. Yeah, it was clear Scoob had taken this one.

The Parasite Of Mortrex gatecrashes the fight between purple and red Termagants

The Parasite Of Mortrex gatecrashes the fight between purple and red Termagants


A few days after our first foray into 40K 10th territory, it was the turn of the game I was most looking forward to getting back to, in the form of Epic-S.

It's hard to believe that it had been a whole year since we last played this, so its time was certainly due.

Scoob and I had loads of options to try out. The Eldar and Squats had now got full rules, while the Nidz had been buffed after last time, and the Androids were now fully painted and very much ready for the tabletop.

In the end we decided to try an Eldar vs Nidz showdown. With Scoob on a Nid kick at the minute, he went for the forces of the Hive Mind, while I took command of the pointy ears.

Unfortunately for the bugs, they seemed a little doomed to fail from fairly early on. Even though their psychic powers had been buffed, we continually forgot the psychic phase, denying them this resource.

In addition, this was without any shadow of doubt, the best game I can remember ever having in terms of dice rolling. After an embarrassing first turn shooting attempt from the Phantom Titan, that saw it hit just one of ten 5+ attacks, my luck completely changed. Case in point, on the second turn, the Titan's next attack saw it hit eight of those same attacks, which caused massive damage to the Hierophant Titan scuttling towards it.

From this point on, Scoob had poor to average rolls, while mine were nearly all ridiculously good.

The 6000pt game ended after three turns, with the score 4212 to 2649 in my favour.

The Eldar counter the Tyranid aggression amongst the trees

The Eldar counter the Tyranid aggression amongst the trees

A tale of two dice rolls

A tale of two dice rolls

Though it seems the Tyranids are still underpowered, it's hard to take any real data from this battle considering what happened throughout.


So, well over a year since I started renovating my old "Hilly Rocks", I've actually taken another slight step towards their completion.

While all of the terrain was out for our recent games, I managed to get around to drybrushing all of the rock walls. They will need another round of washing and drybrushing to get the look I want, but at least a little bit has been done.

While I was doing this, I noticed one of the pieces had warped, and the edge section was bending up off of the tabletop. Sigh. Something else that I will need to fix, I guess.

The hilly rocks finally get drybrushed

The hilly rocks finally get drybrushed

Neither hills, rocks, or hilly rocks, are supposed to levitate

Neither hills, rocks, or hilly rocks, are supposed to levitate

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