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Wow, another year has gone. And what a year, so much has happened in the life and at the painting front too!

After being home with our child for eight months, it is tomorrow again time to go to work. It will take some time to get used to the change, but as you might have noticed that the blog has been quite quiet in recent times, I have some new stuff painted that is not yet posted. So no worries, new stuff will be added in the future even if I might have less time to paint. (…and oh yes, there are plenty of older models still waiting their turn to get some camera time…)

So to start the new year I change gears and have another Eldar update! Here she is, the Storm of Silence herself, Jain Zar:

Yet another update about Ultramarines. This time a full Sternguard Veteran Squad converted from the plastic kits, with each carrying a unique bolter.

I have been currently busy with creating a world, in both micro and macro levels. You will see soonish what that is all about.

And oh yes, it seems to be a time to clean some old paintings from the Necrons. If only my book would be delivered soon to check out the new fluff to decide what dynasty to paint them …

Another quick Ultramarine update.

Have fun!

Less talk, more pics.

‘Ere:

Some new stuff added, this time them being the greenest and the meanest ( and perhaps having the greatest taste for nice hats) of them all. That means of course Bad Moon -klan orkses.

I have already some (1000-1500 points) of painted Blood Axe -orks that I painted while I was in the army, but some of them are getting a flashy new repaint now after their 10th anniversary, and of course new stuff will also be added to the army. At the moment I have six Killa Kans being half done, I really like the models (or actually the first one is ready for you to see).

I also added a new gallery (a link in the right sidebar), where there are a couple of characters.

Hope you like!

I have had some changes of how I feel about characters in Warhammer (and 40k) armies during the time I have been playing miniature wargames. When I started the hobby I was thrilled to use as many special or “named” characters in my armies as possible, not only because the models were mostly much cooler than the regular ones, but also because they were usually more powerful versions of the basic characters. But my views of using them didn’t last that long…

Later I started to dislike the special characters, and regarded them as a lazy way to avoid using your own imagination and writing your own background for your heroes and villains. This was also in a way helped by the rules, as many special characters started to require your opponent’s approval to use. I wanted to create my own all-conquering warlords, and to let the games I played to affect their histories and the fluff I was writing for them. But yet again, this way to see things didn’t last forever…

Nowadays I am back with the special character bandwagon. In a sense I see it like any other fiction, whether its a movie or a comic book: they are filled with great heroes and villains, whose past and future deeds are for us to enjoy. Let’s take mr. Abaddon as an example against any selfmade Chaos Lord; there is just something awesome of seeing the greatest (of course some might disagree, as Abaddon has already failed 13 times with his Black Crusades…) Chaos Warlord of all time facing his lesser enemies on the tabletop. Better yet, sometimes even facing his equals (Calgar or Lysander, for example) in a truly epic duel to the death.

So once again I am sold to using more of the special characters, and the rules developers have also taken away the need to ask your opponent first. If you are about to face me in an enjoyable match of some WH40k, be prepared to see some “characterful” armies.

(And because the old model of Abaddon didn’t really capture the feel I wanted him to, it was time for some converting. I myself think he is one of my best models. Ever. And to have some new enemies for him, here is also an Ultramarines Chaplain in Terminator armour.)

Oh my, how fast time flies. I have had a bit of a vacation updating this blog, by spending some summer holidays with the family. Lots of stuff have been happening at the painting front and I also went to a 40k tournament about one month ago. And tournaments of course mean that new shiny models get their first test games.

So, for the tournament I finished painting the squad of Berzerkers and a Rhino for my Chaos army. Here are the pics:

The games themselves went a bit both ways, with me being in a lead after the first day by winning my first two games, but after that I was massacred in the latter two games. The end result was being in the better half, which was my goal, and as Chaos Space Marines aren’t the most competitive of army lists I am very happy with the results.

Currently I am finishing some terminator armoured characters, so stay tuned!

Wouldn’t it be cool…?

I do not know how many times have I thought myself like that, and I think it have often resulted into my best projects. Painting (and converting) miniatures is a creative hobby and being creative  means having fresh ideas, thinking new ways to do things. Sometimes it can be a single idea and a need to try out if it would work in reality. I am sure we all hobbyists have these ideas, whether we have really thought it or not.

The reason why I am writing this is that I recently had one of those moments. I was thinking about my old armies, and my first 40k army in particular – my old Chaos Space Marines made in late 90′s. Sadly those were sold to fund buying new models. They were the Falling Stars, a renegade Space Marine chapter, with models converted from loyalist and CSM bits, painted with a colour scheme of black, purple and gold.

So, there I was thinking that army, when the “wouldn’t it be cool…” -moment came and I had an idea of remaking some of those models. I remember converting some the old marines with unarmoured arms (from Catachan models), and decided to make a unit of Khorne Berzerkers with their arms bare. I also had this idea of painting Khorne skull symbol into the helmets, so I got to try that out also, to see if it would help to get that khornate look to the models. I have to admit that I had some doubts of making Berzerkers in a purple colour scheme, but in the end it resulted into something quite cool I think.

I converted these models from Marines and Chaos Marauders, and here are the first four of them. And to be a little bit nostalgic, I also put there one of the original Falling Stars (now named Old Bob).  Perhaps we can agree that over ten years of painting can be good for one’s painting skills.

And to continue the project of taking pics of my armies, here is a picture of a Skaven Doomwheel:

It almost become a week of no updates! But, some stuff have now been added to also keep me focussed to not let this blog die like its predecessors.

So, like the title says, it is time to take pics of my Skaven army to give some change to all the 40k -stuff that has been added. I have to say that it is much more difficult to take pics of fantasy units than 40k -squads, but I hope they are ok.

So here are a couple of packs of 30 rats, some Clanrats and Plague Monks.

I also started to convert and paint a berzerker test model for my Chaos army, to give some change to all those ork models that are currently at the painting desk. I am not sure I am totally sold about its current state, but I hope it will be something really nice. Let’s wait and see!

Time for another update, this time I have added all my finished Space Wolves (not that many actually) to their own page. When the latest Wolf -codex was released, I was one of the many to jump into that bandwagon, but the project has been frozen for some time now. I hope to get some more stuff done for them in the nearish future, to get the army playable – that means at least a pack or two of Grey Hunters.

So, here is a teaser, and the rest can be found from their own page from right sidebar:

I have also been asked how I take pictures of my models. What a great excuse to make a more detailed step-by-step guide, so within a couple of weeks you should get more info of this – and hopefully you others who also take pics can give feedback to teach me a trick or two.

Until that, more pics will hopefully be added, and of course the painting projects are also progressing. Here are some things you might expect in the future as new stuff:

- Ork Kannon Battery
- Kill Kans and a Deff Dred
- Ork Pirate Landship Battlewagon
- Khorne Berzerkers
- Alpha Legion Stealth Operatives or Fallen Angels

So stay tuned!