WarLlama 40k: The Outcast Dead - Book Review

I've just finished this book today. So being able to go back and read WarLlama's review I thought I'd share it with you all. Whilst I would have rated the book a little higher I agree with his views. All in all a worthy part of the Horus Heresy series in my mind.

WarLlama 40k: The Outcast Dead: It's been a couple of weeks since I finished reading this one, and for those of you keeping track, yes I have missed out a book! So the ...

What I Read (Focused) - Scorpius GLC's Tyrants Legion

So Scorpius GLC's latest blog is about how he has completed his 2000pts Tyrants Legion army already. Taken from the Badab Wars Forge World books this army combines Space Marines and Imperial Guard in one force. He has done a fantastic job on this army, conversions, classic models Forge World, giant flyers, he's got it all. That's all I intend to say about it, here is his post; please follow the link to his site and tell him what you think of his work.

Praise to the Tyrant - 2000pts Tyrants Legion Force

Hi guys and gals, how’s your New 40k: New Army projects coming along?

I have completed my 2000pts (I like to jump both feet in!!), I do have a few extra bits to add to the force as the project is going to be on/off for the next year as I work my force up in size along with Chaos Bringers Minotaurs Army & SNAGA101′s Red Scorpions. The reason I say on off is I have a lot more free time to work on my projects and am just over 1000pts ahead of them. I will be getting around to documenting my build and their projects on YouTube over the next few weeks!

So my force, selected from the Tyrants Legion Army List in the Badab War Vol.1 Book from Forge World:

HQ CHOICE 1: LUGFT HURON & HONOUR GUARD SQUAD

The Lugft Huron model from Forge World is AMAZING!!! the details are crisp and clean and was a wonderful model to paint! The honour Guard were made from kit bashing Space Marine Assault Squad arms with the Space Marine Command Sprue parts and the Steam Knight Models from Anvil Industry. The Relic Blades are from Scibor Miniatures. I really wanted this squad to be unique and I think the armour and weapons do the job well!

HQ CHOICE 2: AUXILIA COMMAND SQUAD
TROOP CHOICE 3: AUXILIA ARMSMEN CADRE & CHIMERA TRANSPORT

This unit is made up of Rogue Trader Era Guardsmen and the Titan Princep from Forge World represents the Commander of the Auxilia forces working within the Tyrants Legion, When the force breaks above the 2000pts mark this will be a Imperial Guard HQ for my allies and will be mounted inside a Centaur.

HQ CHOICE 3: COMPULSORY FREE CHOICE – LEGION CENTURION

This was the test model I made for this force, I have to hae one in my force if it is more than 1500pts and I built the model from the command sprue, tactical sprue, Devastator sprue and the Dark Angels sprue.

TROOP CHOICE 1 – COMPULSORY CHOICE – AUXILIA SQUAD

this squad must be present in any sized list and is made from the standard Cadian Boxed set. I painted this as the second thing for the army as I wanted to get the bulk painting over and done with. I chose to decorate the shoulder plates of armour with the colours of the Legion and I feel it helps to unify the force.

HQ CHOICE 2: SPACE MARINE COHORT SQUAD

This was a cool unit to build, it was kitbashed a little and has Forge World & Anvil Industry Shoulder Pads. I really enjoyed painting these and varnished them with a new can of purity seal…….they turned white  but managed to pull them back to this

This was a straight from the box build and went for a battered armour look as they had been in many wars!

ELITES CHOICE 1: ASSAULT TERMINATOR SQUAD

This unit has parts from Assault on Black Reach, Anvil Industry & Scibor Shoulder Pads as well as 2 Scibor Storm Shields.

HEAVY SUPPORT CHOICE 1: VINDICATOR

HEAVY SUPPORT CHOICE 2 – STORM EAGLE

Always getting in to the thick of the battle I painted my Storm Eagle as Battered and Bruised!

WELL I HOPE THAT YOU LIKE MY FIRST 2000pts OF MY TYRANTS LEGION AND WILL BE UPDATING THIS OVER THE COMING MONTHS! THANKS ONCE AGAIN!

Not Quite done with Kickstarter

Well since my previous article about how great Kickstarter is for the hobby I’ve found more ways for the site to make me a little poorer and a great deal happier. Three drives have grabbed my interest, two that are still running and one that blew all gaming records.The third here is of course Reaper’s Bones miniature campaign.

$3,429,236!! As in yes, they made almost three and a half million dollars made for making new little figures. I think that is pretty fantastic, and is a clear example of what a well run Kickstarter campaign can achieve. We the hobbyist have a lot to offer to the companies we believe deserve our support. Some folks smarter and better at writing have written a great (and concise) article about Reaper’s campaign. So I’ll just go on to say that I’m very excited about some of the figures that I’m getting, having gone in with a friend from in my D&D group. The $100 ‘Vampire’ pledge level was a fantastic deal, 241 figures ranging from a Griffon (for my Empire army) to some awesome Pirates (for Cutlass!). Here are a few images of some of the items included or that could be added on to a pledge.
Not bad for a pair of expressive hands and a voice over.
Now more exciting right now are two campaigns that are still running (28.08.12). You’ll recognize them from the banners I’ve added to the top of my blog right now. Mantic’s Dreadball & DreamForge Games Leviathans

To call Dreadball a Sci-Fi copy of Blood Bowl would be doing it a massive, massive disservice. So I won’t do that apart from to say that you get the idea. : ) You’ll be hearing more about Dreadball on this blog soon, I think it looks amazing. Having got in quickly on the Kickstarter I got the Earlybird Special on the Striker pledge level saving $10 and am waiting with baited breath on more exciting options and extras. Currently the basic set is looking like this:

Then comes DreamForge Games’ Leviathans, these look great. A few times over the years I’ve stumbled across them on the net and wished I could afford the $400 price tag So now they are going to be available for $90 I’m in. This figure stands at 8.5” tall and I hope will make a perfect Ad.Mech. Knight Titan from the days of Epic 40k. In game I plan on using the rules of  Leman Russ Battle Tank.

Leviathan Crusader from DreamForge

Knight Baron

The Knight Paladin models from Epic Titan Legions (1994)

The campaign also includes Eisernkern Stormtroopers, a range of 30mm human soldiers that will make great IG or even Space marines at a push. There is talk of APCs and command sprues coming for these guys on top of the incredibly detailed accessory sprue that has just been unlcoked.
So exciting time on Kickstarter right now. What do you lot think of these campaigns? Are there any others that I’ve missed that I really should know about? Please don’t mention Fanticide, I can’t believe that such big names in the industry have got themselves involved in such a rubbish looking project.

Riding Rough

A few things have happened with my plans for new 40k as I've gone over the rules and my codex's. First I've come to love the idea of Fortifications, with them being so Imperial influenced so far and most of my 40k collections being  of the Imperium they fit lovely. Allies are also the thing for me, my Space marines are my only truly finished force, and I just don't have the desire to use them right now, this leaves me with my barely started Samurai Grey Knights and my not much further along Imperial Guard. Painting up my Ageis Defence Line was great fun as t was such a quick little project, the photographing it with my IG got me all keen on doing some more work on them.

So for this weeks #MiniatureMonday on Twitter I present my Rough Riders, or at least the first five of them.

Now as you can see, there are still three bases to go, I'm out of the modeling clay I was using for them. I think I'll be ordering these Desert Basin bases from Secret Weapon Miniatures for the army so I'm not going to rush to finish that part of the job. The bikes come from the British firm Ramshackle Games, I bought a load of them with and without legs ages ago to use as Rough Riders and am very pleased with the look.

Bandanna Dude on the left is throwing an explosive charge made of plasticard that represents hunting lances, the rest of the squad have them attached to their bikes ready to be used.

As always, I'd love to know what people think. Let me know either here or on Twitter @DrakePoldragon

Upcoming is another look at how things are going on Kickstarter and I intend to take on the awful task of cataloguing my unpainted model collection. These two topics are not 100% unrelated. ;) 

What I Read–WarLlama

Here we are with an absolute favourite blog of mine, WarLlama. Tim (@WarLlama40k) is a fellow member of the Shellcase Alliance and a fantastic blogger. Mostly a hobby site, there are regular updates of his progress with various armies alongside a steady flow of news and reviews.

As you can see from the WarLlama banner above, Tim’s focus is entirely GW and mostly 40k. He doesn’t have large painted armies, but after seeing some of his recent videos and reading his posts you quickly understand that like most of us, his collection far outstrips his completion rate. More impressive however is the constant progress he seems to be making. Few weeks go by without some sort of post about hobby progress getting done. Be it the addition of Necrons to his army range or how to create bases in the style of a Dwarven drinking hall.

Recently Tim had a week free from work where he planned to paint up all of his Necron's, a search on Twitter under the #Warllamanecronweek should show everything that he did through the week, and his post afterwards sums it all up nicely. Now painting the entire army in a week went as well as anyone could expect, but that didn't stop it being an awesome and enjoyable week of progress reports.

A highlight of the WarLlama are his White Dwarf reviews. These are fantastic, including a range of back issues going back to the good old days (pre Fat Dwarf) and including each issue as it is released now. A recent inclusion is video reviews to go besides his written summary. Tim is fair, but harsh. His leaning towards 40k colours his views, but not as much as his dislike for pages thrown away on advertising pictures. This is a  really fun series that I’m pleased to see he is fully behind, he just recently bought a new batch of old WD’s from ebay.
A lovely page on the site, and one that I may work on copying some time (maybe for the new year) is the Scores and Stats section. A great idea where w/l/d’s for different armies and ratings for WD’s and Black Library novels are recorded. A recent success was Tim’s Battle Report, Necrons vs. Ultramarines allied with Tau (Tim’s force). A game of 6th edition 40k that was described in a narrative fashion following advice he got from Vox Diaries of the Imperium (also in the Shellcase Alliance).

All in all WarLlama is a really enjoyable blog written by an everyday dedicated hobbyist. Tim carries it all off in a style that really suits me, hence this is always the first blog I check when I get to sit down in the evening. As always I hope anyone that follows the links from here find something that they like as well, I’d love to hear back on anyone's opinions on the WarLlama.

Kickstarter–My £’s Growing the Hobby

Well I’m sure everyone who comes here knows the basic premise of Kickstarter.com. But to be sure,

What is Kickstarter?

Kickstarter is a new way to fund creative projects.
We believe that:
• A good idea, communicated well, can spread fast and wide.
• A large group of people can be a tremendous source of money and encouragement.
Kickstarter is powered by a unique all-or-nothing funding method where projects must be fully-funded or no money changes hands.

Kickstarter FAQ

In essence the public agree to upfront to pay for something, then if enough people promise enough money the Kickstarter is ‘funded’. Money is paid by everyone and (hopefully) the company can then make what they promised. If not enough money is promised then no one pays a thing. There have been some super high profile stories recently about videogames getting funded with massive amounts of support. And a D&D based super geeky stickman comic recently raised $1,254,120 for reprints, (if you don’t read it I highly recommend the Order of the Stick if you are a D&D fan). More appropriate to our little area of the community have been two very different and successful drives.

Mantic achieved an amazing $354,998 to fund their new hardback rulebook and beyond that 15-25 new sculpts and conversions of a load of their older metals to plastic. Whilst everyone expected them to crush their $5,000 goal and they themselves started off with plans a plenty through to $25,000 and even ideas for their first $100,000. What wasn’t expected is how much the hobby community would come together behind Mantic, their ‘final’ stretch goal was beaten by $65,000 and they launched an amazing Celestial Humans range which took off at the end. Mantic threw out ideas and concept sketches and let the backers decide and lead the way things went. It was a great example of company/customer relations and likely has done almost as much as the cash inflow for Mantic’s coming years.
Everyone had high expectations for Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster because of it being put out by CMON who had recently ran the highly successful Zombicide Kickstarter campaign. Sedition Was: BfA went on to reach an staggering $951,254. Run by CMON for Studio McVey this campaign was a masterpiece of Stretch goals adding up so as almost every backer (97%) put in at least $100 to get all of the extras.
The amounts that these projects have pulled in is in itself a clear explanation as to why companies in the hobby are jumping on Kickstarter. Yet at the same time there are a few arguments against Kickstarter; some people feel that firms shouldn’t be going out ‘begging’ for money but instead should create products and put them out for purchase. Others feel that Kickstarter should be reserved for only for the smallest of companies and the likes of CMON or Mantic are too large a concern to deserve this funding method. Now I’m not one to find problems or reasons to complain, so I find it hard to see the problem with any company using Kickstarter, it’s a great way of getting products directly to those who want it and of funding projects that have already been through a level of consumer research.
The only downside I really see to Kickstarter is the FLGS’ (Friendly Local Gaming Stores) not getting to sell the products, although compared to the amount of internet sales through normal lines I can’t imagine its a big effect on miniature sales, slightly more for boardgames I suppose.
OK the other downside has to be the waiting, following is a list of Kickstarts that I have backed recently, my levels of patience are depleting as I wait.

• Order of the Sitck (Comics)
• Chicken Ceaser (Boardgame)
• Wasteland 2 (Videogame)
• Blackwater Gulch – Gangfights in the Old West (Skirmish miniatures game)
• Kings of War (Army scale miniature games)
• Sedition Wars: Battle for Alabaster (Boardgame+)
• Run out the Guns! (Model ships)

So as you can see I’m a fan of Kickstarter. I’d love to hear what other people have backed on Kickstarter or on the British Indiegogo. What are peoples thoughts on crowd funding? And scariest of all… are their any campaigns going right now I should know about? Whilst I was writing this, I was contacted by Ballistic Skill Four painting studio about their Indiegogo campaign "Last Days of Angels", what do you think about that idea, and about funding it in such a way?
Finally I recommend you listen to the last few minutes (Timestamp 4:43:41) of The D6 Generation episode 108, Nicole has summed it up quite well.

“Last Days of the Angels”–An Indiegogo Campaign

Now I’m sure I’m not the only one here who has received an e-mail from the people of Ballistic Skill 4 painting studio. And I realise that their request is simply an attempt to receive a little more advertising for their Indiegogo project "Last Days of Angels". That said it is a very interesting project, something I at least have not seen before.

Last Days of the Angels is to be a series of dioramas to tell the story of the destruction of the Blood Angels at the hand (claws?) of a Tyranid Hive Fleet. Similar to the new fluff calling together the successor chapters at the end of M40k.


They have eight to 15 dioramas planned, with the first eight detailed on their page. The rewards however are a little thin on the ground, they have a few lower priced options $5-$20 get you some videos and/or pdf’s. After that the funding level jumps up to $75, $150 or $650, that is that! These options get you dioramas made and painted by the BS4 team. Nice I am sure, but I can’t help feel that they are missing a trick or two here. I suggest they add in levels that include some of their painting services (doesn’t have to be Blood Angels), cheaper options that allow people to have single figures painted up rather than just dioramas and maybe some other pieces of paraphernalia like posters or wallpaper sets. Options that include something physical for under $50 could help get some more pace behind the backing.

They have chosen to take the Flexible Funding option that Indiegogo provide, this means that at the end of the campaign period they get money even if they are not fully funded (unlike the system the Kickstarter use) but pay Indigogo a higher percentage. Hopefully this means we will get to see some great dioramas no matter how it goes. I also hope we can see some more of BS¤’s work, perhaps some of their previous commissions.

OK, the timing for receiving this e-mail was somewhat auspicious, I was in the middle of putting together a post about some of my experiences with Kickstarter over the past few months, this acts as a little warm up post to that. You can expect me to put it out in a day or two.

What do people think about BS4’s plans for the “Last Days of Angels” and their chances of funding all 15 dioramas?

Picket Lines & Defence Lines

A new week and a new #MiniatureMonday. I've had a fairly productive week given that I spent the second half of it away. I bought a pair of desk lamps to improve my painting area and tried some of GW's new paint range.

But on to the miniatures, I've completed some of my Ageis Defence Line. Pictures are taken with some of my Guardsmen I fished out. GK1 stands beside them, this is my plan for a 1500pt list with allies. With two, short and one long section complete, plus the Quad cannon I believe that places me ahead of fellow blogger and #Warmonger @WarLlama40k (not a competition); although his are of a much more detailed finish. :) They are surprisingly fun to build and paint up so I hope to finish tomorrow.

  

Then come the first complete unit from my Dystopian Wars fleet. #StPiransPicket Three KoB Tribal cruisers. Again fun to paint, Menoth White Base is a lovely colour.

HMS Padstow leads the Squadron

HMS Pelynt nearest

Tribal Curisers of Kernow 2nd Fleet

HMS Polperro nearest

¨




GK3-5 are also clipped out and mostly de-mold-lined, Green Stuffing starts tomorrrow.

Comments and tips are welcome. :)