Krieg is comming to the battlefield

I have gotten something done this work period, and I still have one more afternoon where I can build. 

The first thing I finished was the Infernus tank. It is now ready to be primed.

I decided to build it without a commender in the turret, but I added a turret gun and I opted for the stubber. I also placed those in the slots on the sides as I thought it would be nice to only have one kind of weapon so that there is easy to load the tank with amunition.  

The above picture is the two Krieg units I have managed to put together. It is one command squad with a Commisar so it is six figures instead of the usual five. and there is also a weird contraption called a Servo scribe.  There was also a cross with a sign on top that I decided to glue on a spare 25mm bare I had as I think it is too big to add to a base with a figure, but too cool not to use. 

In front of the command squad stands a five man squad of Combat Engineers with a big remote mine. One of the Engineers has a big remote control for the mine.

I hope to build Lord Marshal Dreir tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I will manage to finish him. But I will give it a try and update on how it goes.

Troggoths and Tank

This week I have been working on completing my Rockgut Troggoths. I find it a little weird that they are not among the units listed in the Gloomspite Gitz army over on the Warhammer homepage. But they are in the start collecting box or spearhead box, so they are no doubt still a part of the current army.

I discovered this as I tried to find some pictures of them to find out what colors to use on a few details.

All nine Troggoths are now painted, and their bases are done. What remains is to paint the rims, and I will do that as soon as possible.

I also did the base of Trugg the Troggoth King, that too need to get the rim painted.

For the Gloomspite Gitz army the next project will be six Fellwater Troggoths (they used to be called river trolls). They are online only normally but when I was at the warhammer store a customer had bought two boxes and returned them, but they had not been opened so everything is still in the boxes.

I will try and paint them up to look a bit like a pike, as that is a big, sort of slimey and mean fish. They will not look exactly like a pike ofcorse but it will be my inpiration.

I started to work on my Malcador Infernus tank, and I have gotten most of it done, there are just some of the belts and belt guards left, and then what ever I choose to have in the turret. I don't think I will have a commander, but rather go for a closed htch but with a pintle mounted weapon placed there. 

I enjoy building the tanks, especially the ones from the Horus Heresy as they are quite special. I also love the Super Heavies, and I do have one more unbilt of those to build at a future time.

I am still working out what color scheme I would like to paint the tanks, but I am thinking I should use mostly the same as I have on my modern tanks but maybe with a few ajustments.

Slow progress due to illness

This was the week where I had planned to finish all my Rockgut Troggoths and start working on my new tanks, but that did not happen.

Instead of working with my minis, I got the flue and quite havy fever so instead of sitting working on my minis I lay in bed under two duvets still freezing ans shivering.

But I got a little better during the weekend, so I manged to sit a bit and paint some.

I have most of the Troggoths painted now, but there are some clean-up left to do, and when that is done I will use a contrast paint thinned with contrast medium as a glaze to blend all the skin colors together and then I might drybrush a bit later to get some of the brighter colors back.

I also collected my package of tanks and flyers. I got an Arvus Lighter, a small unarmed flyer that comes with one gun that can be fired when the hatch is open and it is on the ground.

There were two tanks, a Valdor Tenk Destroyer and the tank I was really looking forward to starting to build, the Malcador Infernus. The Infernus is a big flame tank, and I have wanted that since I first saw it in resin and now it is out in plastic.

The Infernus is the first thing I will build as soon as I feel ok with my Troggoths.

Happy New Year! First update of 2025

This is the first update of 2025, and I have finished a few models, and will try to take pictures of them in a couple of days and then I will post them here.

I have continued to work on the models from 2024, and I managed to finish several of them.

Trugg the Troggoth King is painted up, and I have glued him (it?) onto the base. I need to do the basing, and then I can call him done. He is painted like the Dankhold Troggoths, and I am quite happy with how he turned out. I will take one last look after I have done the base, just to make sure that there isn't too many colors that have splotched over to other areas where they shouldn't be. Then pictures will be taken.

The Dankhold Troggoth and the Dankhold Troggboss are both done with finished bases, and I will post pictures of them in the near future. They are done to the best of my abilities at the moment, and I am quite happy with the way they turned out. 

I also painted up a smaller troggoth sculpted in much the same way. I don't remeber if he was made for Warcry or Underworlds, but it seems like this troggoth is no longer in the current range. I had no plans to play that game anyway but planned to add him to my Gloomspite Gitz army along with the others. He originally comes with several other smaller figures, like a flying squig, a rock with a mouth and I think there was one more. They are not done yet, but I am working on them, and they will be added to the army when they are done. I will post the picturee of the Troggoth though, along with the Dankhold ones.

I have also finished my first unit of Hernkyn Yaegirs for Killteam. Basically they are the Hernkyn Pioneers from the Leagues of Votann but on foot instead of riding bikes. I have finished the whole unit of 10 plus one "miniature of the month" making it 11 figs in total. However I saw someone showing a lore video of Squats earlier today, and the pictures there made me think that maybe I should add a few final details on their arms before I call them completely done. But no matter what I end up with I will try and get some pictures of them the way they look now. It is just a matter of adding some color to a small panel they have on their arms. I might do that after they are photographed too and show it off as I finish my next batch of 10 (they are primed waiting to be painted).

There is not a big update for Oldworld (Fantasy) but I have started to paint the guard shack for my mansion, and I am very happy with the way I painted the roof this time even if I changed it from the last buildings I panted so long ago. I had a great recepie for red roofs, but can't find it anymore so I changed to the classic blue that we have seen in a lot of Games Workshop pictures from back in the day. I will keep the red roofs as they are because they look good, but I think most new roofs will be painted in this "new" blue style. I plan to use a dark blue wash on the roofs later on in the process, but I will post a picture in a few days of how it looks now.

I have also used an old piece of fence to try out how I want to paint all the wooden fences that came with the mansion set, this piece is from the old fence set (but that is identical to the one they sell now, it has just gotten new packaging). I tried to paint a fence row of wooden planks and some braided willow and also a signpost. I am not 100% convinced on the braided part, but I love the sign. I will try to remember to take a picture of that as well.

Finally I have started to build some new stuff. For my Secret Grotmas exchange at the Warhammer store I got a box of  5 Terminators, so I have built them already. This is the new type that is more in line with the Primaris Marines. Most of my Terminators are the old type, but I think they will blend in nicely as long as I keep them as a separate unit, and I am sure there will be more. I know there are some in the Leviathan box, but I have only started to work on the Tyranids side of that box as of now.
I had planned to prime my new Terminators, but it has been either very cold or snowing so I haven't been able to do that yet. 

I have a Primaris Spacemarine that was "free model of the month" some time back, and I have been using him to find the way I want my Space marines to look, so I know how I will paint the terminators when I get to start.

The last thing I have been working on is the new Killteam box "Brutal & Cunning". I started with the cunning part, and have assembled 6 Ratlings, a dog and a few traps. I have to say the ratlings are really detailed, and it will probably take me quite some time to get them painted up for that reason, but this also makes them look very good so I don't really mind. 

I haven't played Killteam before, and I sort of doubt I will begin, but they will fit nicely in to the Walpurgian 3rd Imperial Guard army for Warhammer 40.000. 

The Brutal part of the box will be part of my Ork Waaagh! that is slowly growing. 

There has been too long (again) since I updated this blog.

This last week I have been working on catching up on my Warhammer and have managed to get some things done.

Just a few weeks ago, Games Workshop relased a little "vignette" with two ratlings taking cover and having a meal during combat. The set is called Provisionally Prepared. I don't know if this will get its own rules to be used in games as is, but if not it can still be used as a Ratling sniper and spotter I guess.

I built and primed this and look forward to painting it up using both regular and contrast paints.

They will be painted up as members of the 1st Abhuman Regiemnt of the Valpurgian 3rd.

I also built and primed a Leagues of Votann unit called Brokhyr Iron-master. This includes an Iron-master, a robot the size of the votann and 3 smaller simpler robots. This will probably be the next Votann unit I paint up from scratch, but I am still working on painting my Grimnyr and his two flying robots and hope to finish them soon too.

I had a session priming up a lot of units that I had already built. This included the 3 Hernkyn Pioneers on their hoover bikes I mentioned in an earlier post. I am still not sure how I will present these, but right now I am thinking of adding some cork on their bases to get them to hover or leviate a little more, but not too much. But I think I can raise it a bit and then maybe put some flowers or tufts underneth to make it look like they are flying more in terrain.

And speaking about Votann I also primed a unit of 10 Hernkyn Yaegirs to go along with last months miniature of the month that was a single figure that could be assembled from this set. I primed it along with my Old World Mansion last time I was priming and it was primed White Scar. The minis I primed now were primed Greyseer but I don't think that will be any "problem" when the minis are painted as the main thing on these minis are their great coats and they will be painted in dark brown to be leather.

I had 2 units of Ork Boyz and they were also primed when I was at it with the rattle can. Each unit consists of 10 Boyz and 1 Nob. They were also primed Greyseer as I have found that I like to use a dark green contrast paint to paint the skin of my orks. For this reason I am thinking abour re-priming my Ghazghkull Thraka that is primed all black so that I can use the same recepie for skin on him and his little banner bearing assistant.

There was also another Ork that I primed this round, and that was the newest Big Mek model. 

He is quite big compared to the Boyz , and  I think I will use some flashy contrast colors on him to make him stand out a bit on the battlefield, while still having the sombre Big Mek look that I give to all my Meks.

The final unit I primed up this round was an Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) unit of 10 Kasrkin. This is originally a Killteam set, but I plan to use them as Special Forces soldiers for the Valpurgian 3rd.

After all the priming was done I still felt like building some more minis, so i built another Ork. This time it was the single figure of Boss Snikrot, the Ork Kommando who is the most Kommando of all the Ork Kommandos. He will get a new name (no idea what it will be yet, but probably something fitting to Arnold Schwarzeneger, Sylvester Stallone or Dolph Lundgren or something like that) and Snikrot will be the leader of all my Ork Kommandos.

When he was done I was sort of in the building groove so I built myself a unit of 3 Rockgut Troggoths. They will join the 6 Rockgut Throggoths I still haven't finished painting. I have't decided exacly how to paint them yet, but I think I will try my best to paint them up like the 6 I have already started on. I don't remember exactly what colors I used but I have a good idea, and they are Troggoths so I don't think they mind  if there is a little color vatiation as long as the main color sceme is about the same...

Finally I finally started to paint up Trugg the Troggoth King. I painted his horns and fur and some banners and shields. Next step is painting the skin, and I will start on that next time I get time to sit down and paint. Tomorrow I will pick up my dog again so next week I will be with her as much as I can. This week will be the last rehersals and concerts with the big bands before Christmas, so when my Shelte girl goes back to my ex wife in a weeks time, I will have two more evenings in the week to sit and paint so hopefully that means that I can be a little more productive.

October roundup

October has just passed over to November, and it is time for an update.

Warhammer usually calles October for Orktober, and I had planned to do more painting on my Stompa, but that did not happen. But still I have managed to do a little Ork stuff. I have built the newest Big Mek model and he is ready for priming. I have also made two boxes of Ork Boyz (giving me twenty Boyz and two Nobs). I wanted to do a little of all on my Boyz, so I made six of them with two handed big shootas, two with the rocket gun, two with what I would call the machine gun (heavy stubber?) and the rest with guns and any sort of stabba. Most of them got swords or big crude knives, but two of them got the heads with long hair and I gave them axes to give them a more barbarian look. If I buy another box of Boyz I might make four more with the big guns and also see if I can make a Nob with a weapon like that to have a unit full. 

I have also ordered the last two Megatrakk Scrapjets I need to finish my Top Gear team that I have wanted to make for the longest time. James May, Richard hammond and Jeremy Clarksoin in Ork shapes. If I remember right there are not too many ways to build that model, but maybe I can add some spare parts here or there to make them a little different, and I am sure I can do a headswap or something for the driver. I am sure I can find some pilot heads that will fit this purpose.

I have also built and primed the Kasrkin special model that was a Warhammer + subscription mini if I remember it correctly. I hope I can use him as an offices for my Special Forces. Also I have started to assemble the Killteam box with Kasrkin troops. I have built two out of ten so far, the sergeant and the medic.

The miniature of the month for November is a Hernkyn Yaegir, and if they have them in the Warhammer store already I will get one tomorrow as I have to go there to collect my finished model for last month, a Chaos Warrior that I built and painted up in October. I had lot of fun painting up the warrior, except i had problems withe the pot of Balthazar Gold that was thick and lumpy so I didn't get the best result with it.
I have lots of ideas to build and paint my chaos warriors and I have decided I will mke the Khorn, Nurgle and Slaanesh warriors with contrast paint over a silver coating. Then the warriors that used to be called "chaos Unlimited" but now might be the Slaves to darkness in the Age of Sigmar range. The Chaos warriors wil be used both for Age of Sigmar but also for The Old World for the ones that are built on square bases. I will paint them up the same way though.

Troggoths and scenery (and some Imperial Agents)

I have been working some more on my Troggoths today, and as soon as the weather is nice when I have time I will prime the Troggoth King.

Last weekend I was at the Games Workshop store in Oslo and picked up some paint and a few mail orders, among them a box of Old Word Dwarf miners the Kasrkin Stormprooper model that is exclusive for Warhammer+ members, a pair of hills for The Old World and the mansion also for The Old World. 

Also I got two inquisitorial agents, one priest and one navigator. 

The Priest, Navigator and Kasrkin Stormtrooper are all built now and will be primed alongside the Troggoth King, the Malcador tank and the two hills (as they did not require any assembly).

I love the Old World models and have started to build the mansion. I have assembled most of the house/chapel, but now I need to figure out how I can solve a few issues. The building has a hole in the roof, and I don't like that. So I will try to see if the little annex you can add to the roof can be put so that it covers that hole instead of being on the other side of the roof where it is supposed to be. If that works I can put the pipe on that side (it is optional to use that, the annex or a hatch).

 

Glomspite Gitz and a Tank

The Goblins are done, I will take some good pictures of them when I have fixed the lights in my workshop and post here after. I have 36 of what I call "forrest goblins" and I will need to make 4 unit fillers to make a unit of 40.

The next installment for that army will be another box of 40 where 20 will have spears and shields and 20 will have bows and arrows, both with full command.

Then it is the Dankhold Troggoths that are being painted up, the regular troggoth and the troggboss have just a few details left, and I have started to work on their bases, the one that comes from the skirmish game still needs a little more work, but it is also comming along nicely. I plan to add a little water on the base of that one. The trogggoth bases are quite big, so it might be a nice place to add some of the new flowers I bought online. I talked to the staff at the Warhammer store and they said it was ok to use them even if I wanted to use the figures for games or competitions in store. I will post pictures of them too when they are done. So far I think there are just a few details left, like eyes and nails and I think there are a few more things left on the Troggboss. Next Troggoth to be built is Trugg the Troggoth King. I have bought him and the box is waiting to be opened. 

In the mean time I had fun putting together this not so little tank. It was actually a little bigger than I had expected. This is the Macarius, also known as a Macarius Heavy Tank.  

I decided to built it wit hthe Vanquisher cannon as I love those long barreled guns. The yare not so common anymore, so I felt it would be cool to have it on this relic as the tank is from the 31st century. I am thinking that this might be newer, as some forgeworlds seems to be making them still, or at least made them for many years after the Horus Heresy so this mighr be one of those. I will read some more about it in the background and work out some background for them.

The Macarius will fight along side troops from the Solar Auxillia and some of their armored transports and Leman Russ tanks in my Imperial Guard army, so I will paint them up to match that army. But I will also have the possibility to field them as troops for The Horus Heresy if I would like to play that sometime, so I will only use weapon options that are legal for that.

I have another Macharius and I will build that with the classic look of two lascannong in the turret. Since I liked building this one so much, I might add a third one to the army at a later time and give that the regular battle cannon. 

quite a productive week...

This period has been quite productive even if I don't have anything finished to show off.

First of all I have primed all my built models, and re-primed to big scenery pieces (was originally primed black, now they are white, although one has sort of a senital spray in some areas). The Scenery pieces are a mountain area with some collumns and a tiled floor with a chaos pattern in it (would think it is primarily for AoS (although I am sure when I bought it it was for Warhammer Fantasy) and a wasteland area with craters, dead trees and a scrapped and battele damaged Rhino for Warhammer 40K.

I have also sorted my minis much better, so that the primed modles now stand in boxes with their kin. I will work on this a little furter when I have my dogs, as I plan to buy more plastic boxes and move the unfinished models from soda-boxes of cardboard to plastic bins with lids as they are much more stackable. I have bought and installed a new shelf this weekend, that gives me room for 9 low boxes or 3 tall and 3 low boxes (so I will see what I ned most to have my armies in). I can also stack the boxes in another location in the hobby room, so the ones that don't fit in the shelf will be stacked there. 

I also re-packaged all my unbuit boxes in to small cardboard boxes, moved a lot of them to my storage unit and stacked the ones I wanted to keep in a tidy manner.

This combined with giving a lot of books to a local flea-market made the room a lot cleaner and I got some floorspace back.

On Saturday I was at my local Warhammer store, and they had the Bretonnian Old World Army box (the one that was released along side the Tomb Kings). It contains a lot of models to build and paint in the future. I think it is 76 models, with a mix of soldiers on foot and on horses and 4 on winged horses)

I have finished building a unit of five Attilan Rough Riders (the horse cavalry) for my Imperial Guard army. I was not too happy about how to attach their right arms as I felt I could not connect them the way it was suggested in the instructions, but apart from that the set was pretty nice. I think it worked out ok in the end though, and I am sure they will look fine once they are primed and painted. I have one more box of them to build, and I am trying to figure out how I want to arm them and if I want to field them as one unit of 10 or two units of 5 (maybe I'll need to get more in the future). I figure if I should have them as one unit then they should all have the same kind of weapon tips on their lances, so I might go for two units of 5 to begin with.

While cleaning up and looking through the boxes I found 4 Ogor Leadbelchers that was partially assembled, so I finished them and put them in a cardboard box together with the Attilan Rough Riders ready for my next priming session.

When that was done I sat down with my Sons of Behemat army and started to add to their skin. All skin was origninally painted with Bugmans Glow, a base paint, and now all the skin got a round with the contrast paint Guilliman Flesh. This gives them sort of a grimy look that I think work well for gargants. 

I discovered a few areas that should be skin that I hadn't painted on a few of them, so I managed to fix that with Bugmans Glow and Guilliman Flesh. I will take a good look on all the gargants one more time to make sure all skin is painted now, before I call it done.

I have also painted most of the pants on my Mancrushers. I have 15 of them, and only have 3 more pants to paint now, and I know what colors I would like to use on them so that will be fixed in the next sitting. The Mega-Gargants mostly wear skin, and there are some skin details on the Mancrushers too so that will be next. 

Spring update...

There has been a little while since my last update, so I have managed to do a litte more building than usual since the last time I updated..

First I built an Ork Boss for 40K called Ufthak Blackhawk. He has a big hammer with spikes, and a big gun mounted on his squig. I think the only one who can use the hammer is an Ork or a Space Marine as it is very big. 

Also for 40K i built an Adepta Sororitas Hospitaller. The hospitaller is the Sisters of Battle equivalent to the Space Marine apothecary. She stands over a wounded (or maybe fallen) Battle Sister laying on the ground one what I believe is a 50 or 60 mm base. I am not sure how I would like to paint the hospitaller, as I think she should be a little different from my regular sisters to show that she is another order. 

Then we go to Age of Sigmar, and the first unit I built was for the Cities of Sigmar range, and was a Freeguild Marshal & Relic Envoy. I basically built them as the models on the box, where the Marshal has a sword and shield. There are also a version you can buld with the sword and shield in the other hands or with a warhammer instead of a sword, and also with two pistols instead of sword and shield. I am thinking I will get one more box in the future and make the version with pistols to fight alongside my fusiliers.

Next up was another Cities of Sigmar model, the Freeguild Cavalier-Marshal. He is basically a General of the Army for the Cities of Sigmar range, and my plan is to spilt my army in two. I will use the old Empire and Bretonnian models as a militia and use the Cities of Sigmar figures as regular army. I might paint them up a little different too, I will see about that when I start painting the new Cities of Sigmar stuff.

When I had a Cavalier-Marshal, it was also natural to build a unit of Cavaliers. So I started to build a unit with five cavliers armed with hand weapons and shields. Before I was done I got the dogs, so I took a little break, but when the dogs were back with my Ex I finished this unit. It was quite clear in the manual that you had lots of choises for parts, but when it came down to it there was a lot that did not fit seemlessly on everyone. One good example were the horses, where you built the legs first and then you built the barding and the rider and joined them together later. But the legs basically only fit on one specific barding, so the variation if you make more units is not as great as you are led to believe.
I think I will get one more box and make a unit of 10. I also have riders in the militia and Bretonnian knights, so I think that might be enough.

One thing that bothered me with the Cavaliers and the Cavalier-Marshal was the banners. When you ride, it is natual that the banner flows backwards as it is flapping in the wind. But on the Marshal the banner goes forward and on the Cavaliers it goes sideways. How is that possible? I'm just asking...

Next I assembled two metal minis that came in an old fashioned blisterpack (only whing missing was the foam). They were supposed to be released in the Bretonnian range back in Warhammer Fantasy, but for some reason they were never released. But for The Old World they have been released as they were originally intended in metal on slotted bases. The blister is called Lord with great weapon, and it is a Bretonnian Lord with long flowing hair leaning on his longsword (or maybe it is a broadsword) and a squire carrying his helmet. The mort work with them was cutting away the metal treads left from the casting, then it was only a matter of glueing the sword arm to the Lord and the models were done.

Next I went back to the Cities of Sigmar army and built a Fusil-Major on Ogor Warhulk. This is one of the weirder models for the range as it is a totally new ogor model that looks nothing like the ogor range, except maybe his height. He is not as bulky and muscular, but looks more like a really big human. He has a rig around his waist with a big pole sticing out from it, and on the top of the pole there is a lookout platform where the Fusil-Major stands and gets a good view of the battlefield. From there he shouts orders to the lines of fusiliers on the battlefield. I have a few boxes of those so that is a build for the near future. I think I will get one more Fusil-Major so I can have one on each side of the battlefield.

I then wanted to build something completely different, so I built the Rogal Dorn Battle Tank for my Astra Militarum (Imperial Guard) army. I did a mistake (not sure what really happened, except I built it like I have done with all my other tracked vehicles) with one of the side sponsons so the first belt did not fit as snuggly as it is supposed to do, but I think once I paint it up it will not be very visible. It is just a track at the back that looks a little crooked. The second side sponson I assembled exacly like the instructions said and then it worked as it should. So guess it is some issue with the belts and sponsons needing to be supported from all ides during the build to be steady or something like that. Now I know that for the future. Apart form that it was a very nice build and I don't mind that there is a big part under the middle of the tank that is open. It gives me an excuse not to paint too much underneath...

After the tank was done I wanted to do one more build, so I found a box of Ogor Leadbelchers and built them. But instead of building four of them with the big cannons as the box lets you, I made one of them with a sword and a banner. I don't remember what set the banner is from originally, but I modified it with adding a big skull a long time ago and it has been laying on my desk since. So I made one of them a banner bearer, and I think this unit might be a sort of command unit rallying lots of other Leadbelcherst to their side when the Ogor Mawtribes (as they are called now) march to battle. 

I have quite a lot of Ogors in various stades of painting, some are almost complete while others are primed white or in various stages of painting. 

I see now that the square bases are back in stock, that is one reason I stopped making Ogors as the new models had round bases, but I have checked now and the old ones are on 40x40 mm bases so I can increase the army further by buying boxes for Age of Sigmar and just buy packs of square bases to glue them on. It is not that I need to have a square base army, but when most of them are mounted on thst I think it looks better to have all of them on that. I don't think it will be a big issue as I don't think I will play with them that much, but they will be a display army. Maybe I can bring them to a future Armies on Parade? Time will show... All my Existing ogors are on square bases except the pirte one who seems to be on a round 50mm tht is sculpted. I will see what I do if I move him to a square base and give it some extra love, or if I keep him on the round. His small followers (two squats, a bird and a monkey are also on round bases, but they should be easy to move if I decide to do so).

Another plan I have (maybe I will do something about it tomorrow after work) is to get some more paint on my Sons of Behemat army. I think I have 5 regular gargants and one Mega-gargant that only are primed, so I would like to start and paint some skin on them so I can batch paint my gargants and try to get them finished.

New year - new minis

The calendar has turned to January 2024. That means it is the time to make big pledges and promises for the new year, but I have learned and will not do that. 

However, I do hope to get to work more on my models in 2024 than I managed in 2023. And I do plan to document the process better.

At the moment I have started to paint the Stompa I started to build in October, and I plan to make it look like it has been on the battlefield for a while. It will have armorplates in black, metal and yellow, possibly also some red ones, and I plan to weather them with rust. Getting the Stompa painted is the first priority, but I would also like to make a support vehicle that transports extra barrels of promethium that is used to keep the big flamer firing. I was thinking of using one of the old Trukks that I field as War buggies, but I have to see how many barrels I can stack on the flatbed before I make final decitions. Another idea might be to use the looted Cargo-8 Ridgehauler for that purpose, but I think that might be needed elsewhere in the big army. I could also use more than one War buggy if needed I guess, as I do have a selection of them. 

Already I have 3 Trukks / War buggies that serve as mobile rocket launchers, and I am very happy with them. I have them stored at my cabin, but I am thinking of bringing them home, so that I can have all my finished models in one spot. 

Another army that I hope to arm with Cargo-8 Ridgehaulers are my Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum). I always have a lot of minis for this army in various stages of painting and the start of this year is no different. One of the models I look forward to finishing here is my Valkyrie, it has been standing half built for way too long. A lot of it was because I was missing a sprue, but since I "borrowed" that missing piece from my other unbuilt Valkyrie I have what I need to get the job done. 

I also have lots of troops and tanks for this army primed or partially painted, and I would love to see this army grow in 2024 in the form of finished models.

The army I had the biggest plans for many years ago was the Space Marines, I had planned to make a full chapter, and I think I have more than 100 Terminators in various stages of painting and assembly around in my various storage spaces as well as a whole lot of regular marines and also some of the newer Primaris stuff.
I would love to see this army get some love in 2024 as well. At the moment I am almost done painting up a Marine with a flamer that I got as a figure of the month from the Warhammer Store. I have chosen the colors in the current Citadel paint range that I think looks most similar to the original idea I had for the army, and peinting him gave me a little boost to try to do more with this army. I have lots of cool Terminators that originally came with the Space Hulk board game, and some of them also have Tyranid pieces on them, so it would be cool to get them painted and paint the Tyranids like I paint my Tyranid army.

And speaking ot the Tyranids, I still have lots of Tyranids to finish, both assembling and painting to get that army up and going. I actually managed to finish a few units in 2023, and I look forward to keep on working with this army in 2024.

There are lots of other armies that I have for 40K and Necromunda as well, but I will have to come back to them at a later time, as this post is beginning to be too long already.

Just a small Tyranid update

I had to go to my local Warhammer store yesterday to pick up the Minka Lesk figure I had ordered a few weeks back. I got two so I plan to make one as a sergeant and one as a lieutennant or captain. The figure comes with at least two weapon options (maybe more as I haven't studied the sprues, just looked at the box art) so it will be quite asy to make two different looking models that doesn't appear to be the same person. Both will serve with the Walpurgian 3rd in the 27th Infantry regiment.

While I was there I also got some more paints for my Tyranid army. I think I have mentioned in here earlier that I wand the big 'nids to have a slightly darker carapace and the small to have lighter, and I belive I have worked out how to do it now. One solution could be to just use a heavier wash on the big ones, butthat would also give them a different look so instead I decided to get 3 shades of purple. I don't remember the names right now as I'm not in the same building as my paintstation at the moment, but I will present them when I show off WIP pictures.

The idea now is that the Neurogaunts (the small verson of the Termagaunts) will have the lightest carapace, and I think I will also see if I can use this color of some of the carapace on the "arms" of the bigger Tyranids as that armor is probably softer than the thick one on the back. I also think I will use it on the two small Neuroloids that come with the Neurotyrant and on the Ripper swarms.

The most common sizes will be painted Genestealer Purple, that is the main creatures of the army, the Termagaunts, but probably also on the body carapace of the Barbgaunts, the Von Ryan's Leapers (they have nore carapace but are about the same size) and the Tyranid Prime.
For the Tyranid Prime I might use Genestealer purple for the carapace and then the lighter purple on the skin between the bones in the wings but I will have to see what the lighter color looks like when I get it on the Neurogaunts before I make the final decition.

The Neurotyrant, Screamer-Killer, and Psychophage will ge the darkest purple, and I will also use that on other big beasts that will be released and aquired later. 

I will need to add another color, maybe a contrasting one for some parts on some of the creatures. The small Neurogaunts and the bigger Barbgqunts have symbiotic creatures attached to them, and I will have to see what colors I should paint them. For the Barbgaunst I think I will use the same dark purple that I use for the weapons on the Termagaunts as their sympioctic creature is a weapon. For the Neurogaunts I really don't have any idea yet, but maybe I will find inspiration looking on pictures of other painted minis or something comes to me as I sit and paint the other colors on them. 

End of the week status, and Tyranid update

A week with the dogs and then another week without them has passed, and now I have collected the dogs again to have them with me for the comming week.

This week I have not been able to sit and work on my Valkyrie, but I haven't gotten hold of the missing piece either so I am in no hurry. I am quite sure I have one more Valkyrie so I can take the piece from that and finish the one I have started so I will do that in the not too distant future.

What I have been up to though, is building and priming all the Tyranids in the Leviathan boxed set. 

So when the dogs go to back to their second home I will start painting them up. I know most of my colorscheme now, but some of them will need another color added as they have either much bigger and probably tougher carapace than the small ones so it might need a slightly different color. Maybe I can do that with a heavier wash or by using a purple contrast paint isntead of my regular wash. I will see what I can do.Also one of the Tyranids has wings so I need to find a color to put between the "bones" on the "leather" of the wings. 

I am now looking forward to the release of more Tyranids from the new range ro make the splinter fleet grow. New creatufres as shown off, but also more of the ones I already have. One of the tings I'm looking forwar to the most is stangely enough the small ones like th one I used for my test model, as thy will come with many weapon options.

I have started to work on a backstory for the army and the story is that this is a splinter fleet from Hive Fleet Kraken. The Splinter Fleet is designate Sotha Tertius as it was the third splinter fleet discovered near the planet Sotha. They never fought there, but they were seen travelling to an unknown detination. Usually the forces of the Imperium would try to stop them, but they were too heavily involved trying to fight the two other splinter fleets in the area as they fought hard. This week I will keep on working on the back story and see if I can fill it out more. 

"End of the week" status

Even though it is alredy a few days in to the week I'm caling this the end-of-the-week update. I'm collecting my dogs again tomorrow and will have them the comming week, so my Warhammer hobby will get a few days rest.

These last days I've managed to almost complete my Tyranid test-figure. The only thing remaining now is to paint the rim of the base. I think the color scheme turned out real well, and for once I managed to just get a thin coat of wash on the model. Then I went for a thicker coat on the base. For the purple I washed with Druchii Violet and then I drybrushed with Genestealer Purple that I used to paint it in the first place. 
The skin and base was drybrushed Agrax Earrtthshade. The skin got a thin coat while the base got a good load. Then I used Moghast Bone to drybrush the skin gently, and the base got a heavier drybrush with Screaming Skull. 

Here is a close-up of the base, after the drybrush. When I get the rim painted this mini will be done. I look forward to building, priming and painting up more in this color scheme and I look forward to seeing lots of Tyranids painted up like this on the table.

The other project I have been working on is the Valkyrie for the Imperial Guard. This is what it looks like now, The next step is the cockpit, but that will happen when the dogs go to their other home.

I have to say the instructions for this set is pretty bad (hopefully they have gotten better over the years as my model is old), but despite of that I do enjoy building it, and I think it will look pretty good when it is all built and painted.

You don't see much of the inside from the side, even though the side doors are open, but that might chage slightly when the bird is standing on its stand. But still I wanted to paint the interior so I spent some time on that.

This is looking in through the back gate, and you can almost see the two gunners manning their heavy bolters peaking out of the side doors. Before I glued the wings on I checked if I could take them out and put them back in. I am not sure it will be as easy now that the wings are on, but I have to try sometime. The gunners are glued to the gun, and the gun is put in its cradle that is glued to the armholding it to the side of the Valkyrie. So by lifting and tilting the gun I should be able to take the figures out. I need to do this if Iwant to close the doors. For one of the other Valkyries I plan to build the guns but not add the crewmen.

I wanted to paint up the interior, so I have painted some pipes and cables and also screens and buttons.

I had to add a picture from the behind too. The tailgate is open, but I will see what whill happen when the model is finished if it closes, if I plan the model on the base with the gate open or if I might have to glue it shut.

Imperial Guard, Space Marines and a new faction

If you have seen the lables for this post, then you already know that the new faction is Tyranids. So let us start there and let the cat out of the bag. I have bought my first Tyranids. I was at Warhmmer Oslo today and they had four of the new Leviathan boxes in the store so I got one. 

I have long stayed away from the Tyranids because I have no idea how to paint them up. I have tried with some Genestealers but have not been satisfied so I have stayed away. But as the years have passed I have given it a lot of thought and seen a lot of nicely painted 'Nids and now I feel the time is here to give it  go. I plan to give them a light paint scheme with some sort of off-white and light purple and maybe some pink or light red.

Today Games Workshop revealed models that will replace some of the old range and they look really good, so I look forward to expanding the force over time. But I do not want to do it too fast, as I have way too many models to build and paint as it is.

The Leviathan box also includes Space Marines and they have made new versions for several of the units. One unit that is all new is the Terminators that has been made bigger than the old ones and apparently the heads are placed in a more natural place compared to the shouders than on the old ones. I look forward to building and painting them, and I will get more of them when they are released as a separate box. I already have so many Terminators, but I think there always is room for a few more. 

I have also started on a new unit for the Walpurgian 3rd. This time it is a Valkyrie from the 1st Airborne and I have an idea how I want to paint it up. I have painted most of the interior of the troop or cargo compartment, but  the weapons and gunners remain. I am working on them now.

I think the Valkyrie will be black and dark gray just like the vehicles I have painted up for the army, but I will have to think a little bit more on what parts should get what color. The inside of the troop/cargo copartment is black, and I think the cockpit interior will be the same. The pilots will have dark gray pants, or maybe Death Corps drab if I want it to look like a rugged flight suit. I will see how they look when I come to that step in the instructions.

I have one big problem with the Valkyrie, and it is a showstopper so it will not be completed for a while. One of the two side panels for the front cockpit is gone from the set. Probably it has broken off, and I have managed to loose it when opening the box and looking at the sprues some time before. So I have to wait for the Valkyrie to come back in stock so I can get a new one. I talked to the staff at the Warhammer store and asked if they know if GW makes spares but they told me they don't but they would contact customer service for me anyway, as it could be possible that they had a spare sprue if something went wrong in the moulding of new sets. But I am thinking I will buy another one and then use most of the parts for an Ork flyer. Then I have extra crew and some extra parts to use on future builds. My plan is to have three Valkyries and kit them out a little differently for each.

Ogors and Guard update

I haven't finished any units since my last update, but I have done some work. 

First off i have started to paint my first Field Ordnance Battery, the biggest mobile artillery in the Guard that isn't self-propelled. I till haven't figured out what units are used to pull them in to position, but I am hoping we will get some units for that in the future.

The bombast field gun, the one that looks like a regular cannon, has gotten a coat of Mechanicum Standard Grey. The next I need to do is paint the front shield and the wheels black and then the barrel (at least parts of it) and some small details metal. Then I plan to paint a stripe on the black shield, but I have not decided yet what color it shoud be. I'm currently considering red, yellow or orange.

The malleus rocket launcher has also gotten a coat of Mechanicum Standard Grey and the plan here is also to paint the wheels black and maybe the front support pillar. Then the rocket pipes will get a metal color and some green details. Then the plan is to paint the front of the front support pillar in one of the colors mentioned earlier. 

Then I will paint the crew and the ammo boxes. I am still considering if I want to give the crew the same look as the infantry or if I should give them a different color on their coats. I think it depends what I end up doing with the cavalry. They have Russ Grey jackets now, but I am not sure if I like the army to have so many different colored jackets or if I want most of my army to be the same. 

I have also built and primed an Ogor Ironblaster. It was an interesting build with one of the biggest instructions I have seen on a Games Workshop model. It had more steps than on some much larger models that is around today.

I ended up building it skipping some of the steps, but I still think I managed to get it to look as it should in the end. I am looking forward to see if the instructions have changed lately, as I have ordered up a new one. The one I built was from when Warhammer Fantasy was a thing, so it was really old. I know I will get more of them as I would like to have at least two maybe three Ironblasters and one or two Gnoblar Scrap Launchers that is built from the same set.

Another unit I have built and primed is a unit of Gluttons, apart from the Gnoblars. I plan to build me some of those too, but I'll get to that in due time. I have lots of them in the bitz boxes but they are basically lots of two different models as there are two models that you only glue a head to and there are 3 sprues with these models in each box A regular unit would have two of them, but it is hard to make them look individual.

I ran out of square bases for the Ogors now, I only had four left, but I found two bases of the right size that had some rocks and a dwarf shied on them. I am not sure what models they were made for originally, but it seems I have built the models on different bases in the past.

Games Workshop don't sell the square bases anymore, but they will bring them back when the Old World models come out some time in the future, but I think that is still quite a long time in the future. So either I will look at Ebay for the bases I need, or I will have to wait. 

The Ogors I had started to paint before all got a new layer of paint on them, so that they have all painted their pants now. Itill have the last batch I primed to paint along with this last unit of Gluttons, and the idea is to start on their skin next. I need to check the bases on the last unit of Leadbelcchers, and I think they have square bases as it is an old box. so I vill probably build and prime them before I start on the skin on the next units so that I can paint them up along side.

Then I will start on the Mournfang units and the big beasts (Stonehorns or Thundertusks, I still haven't decided what I will make them as).

just a quick one...

Just a quick little post this Monday. I mentioned in my post a few days ago that I had decided on how I wantd to display the Walpurgian 3rd markings on my army. I am afraid that is not true. Right after postin that I discovered that my design had a "V" and not a "W" and since the Walpurgians write their planet name with a W then a design based on a V will not work. so I will have to rethink it once again. Maybe I can use the idea for my Leagues of Votann instead as they are called the Valiant Veteran Alliance so there I have the V.

But the Space Marine iconography I am rather sure of, there I just need to try and paint it on and see how it will look on a shoulderguard. 

Status update, Orks and Ogors mostly

I don't have any pictures to show off for this update, but there has been some progress in the hobby room since I last posted here. 

The biggest updates are on the looted Cargo-8 for my Ork Waaagh. It is almost ready for the tabletop now, as a transport of some kind. The Cargo-8 is mostly painted up, I am missing the wheels, the cago container (the flatbed is done though) and just a few details (like the teeth) on the Ork driver and his companion Grot. I managed to squeeze the grot in beside the driver where the gunner usually would be, so now he points forward while looking at the driver. I like the pointing Grot, and I hope to make some other versions of him for future builds. The body is from the Ogor Gluttons box where he is standing lookout on the platform on top of the banner (if you choose to use that option). Since I have some banners where this option isn't used I have some spare. I plan to use this body with a fitting head in future projects as well. I don't remember in what set I found the head for this Grot, it just sort of lay around in my Ork bitz boxes. Hopefully I will manage to finish painting this model next week as I have a day off on Thursday.

I have also assembled a unit of six Ogor Gluttons with command. Since my first box of theese has a banner with both a lookout and a horned skull, I only used the horned skull for this icon bearer. I also found a different head for the bellower so he didn't end up identical to the one from my first unit.

My plan is to assemble one more Ogor unit and then prime them and add them to the pile of unfinished Ogors I already have on my desk (but I might make two boxes as well once I start).

I went with snow bases back when I originally made the unit that I have given a new skintone, and I have no interest in cutting them off their bases and making new. So instead I decided to try and make them look a bit more detailed, as just plain white snow looks a little dull. So I have started to experiment with adding some contrast paint to make patches of ice, and then I plan to add a new layer of snow on top to blend it in. On some of the bases for the bigger figures in the army (like Stonehorns and Thundertusks) I would like to add some mud as well (still with a little snow on top), to tie the army closer together with the other AoS armies I have. They will also get the green rim around the base as that is something I do for all my AoS minis.

I have started to paint my Witch hunters Galen and Dora ven Denst for my Cities of Sigmar army, and so far I have finished their coats and Doras classic hat. I decided to paint it in brown to give it a tough leather look instead of the classic black that the old witch hunters wore. They will not b in uniform, so I am a bit more free when it comes to painting their clothes.

The Walpurgian 3rd has also gotten some love, I have not gotten around to paint the big guns yet (they are primed and ready to paint), but I have started to paint the Castellan and the Commissar from the new release and the plan is to paint the Castellan with a light skintone and Commisar with the same skintone as I use for my Ogors for AoS. Then I will see if I can "sneak" in some more units with a darker skintone as an army with just one skintone might look a little dull. Since the Walpurgian have integrated other units in to their army over time then that is a good back story for different skintones, and Commissars rarely come from the same planet as the units they serve with so that is yet another good argument to paint him different from the other units. 

I've also started to think of unit markings for my armies. I think I know how I want to make unit markings from the Gatekeepers (my Space Marine chapter) and the Walpurgian 3rd, and I have started to think of how to do it for my Votann and Mechanicus armies.

New figures to paint

I have assembled a few figures lately. The first two are stand alone figures from the new Astra Militarum range, and will serve with the Valpurgian 3rd. The first one is a Commissar. He is standing with his trusty chainsword by his side, and it looks like he is about ro raise or lower his boltgun. 

The second figure is the new Cadian Castellan. I am very happy that Games Workshop has given us four different heads and several weapon options for this figure so there is no need to make any Castellan in the army the same. I am not 100% sure what the exact combat role of a Castellan is, so I do not know how many I will need in my army but that is one thing I will read up on in the rulebook and decide on.

I have given this Castellan a plasma pistol and a chainsword. I like chainswords a lot, as they look scary and at the same time they are easier to paint up to look good compared to a powersword that I usually only get to look like a regular sword. 

This figure has a scenic base that is made in such a way that the figure can't stand  on his own feet unless he is glued to the base. But the base is made in such a way that I can modify it a bit to make it look slightly different for the different Castellans.

The next two figures came in one box, and are for Age of Sigmar, for my Cities of Sigmar army. They are the Witch hunters Galen and Doralia ven Denst, a father and daugher duo. 

They will not be painted up in uniform, but will instead have leather coats and Doralia will have a leather hat or maybe it will be black to add some more color. They will probbly work as a separate unit.

summary of the week

This week I've been a little all over the place.

I started last week with a Field Ordnance Barttery, and finished building and priming it this week. I had hoped I could build them with 5 troops and 1 sergeant, but there were not enough arm-options for regular troops to do this so I had to make one sergeant for each gun. That means a big unit will have 6 sergeants unless I can find some arms that I can use in the regular infantryboxes with the new guard models or with the upgrade sprue that I will have go get anyway as I would love the arms holding wrenches to field as crew for my revcovery vehicle. But even if I can make some changes in future sets so I only have one sergeant for every second gun I have come to the conclusion that I will need to make some Ensigns (2nd Lieutennants) to take command of a battery of six guns as that is how I would love to field my guns. I would love to add some kind of unit markings on these guns, especially on the Bombast gun and the heavy las-cannon as they have quite big shields in front that would look rather monotone if I just paint them in black. I am thinking of painting the front shield black and the reas of the gun Mechanicus standard gray as that will match with my tanks. Then I plan to add a vertical stripe of a brighter color as a unit marking on the guns on one side of the shield just like Games Workshop has done in many of the pictures in the rulebook. I will also bring my tanks home from storage just to add the same vertical stipes in the front on each side of the tanks.

I primed up my Lord Castellan Ursula Creed that I talked about in an earlier post. I look forward to getting her on the battlefield in the future. I managed to get her primed separately from the base, so that I can paint both to a good standard (at least for me) before I glue them together. I think I know what colors to use on most of her details, so it is just a matter of getting started.

For Age of Sigmar I primed up the unit of Ironguts and I have also started to paint them and has gotten the first layer of skin color on. Interestingly, I see that Games Workshop now has that unit marked as "Sold out - no longer available online" on their web page and this is a little weird. I am quite sure they are in the new rulebook and will continue to be a unit, so it will be interesting to see what they will do. Usually when they mark them like that it means the unit is going out of production, but it could be that they will release them again in a new packaging. I hope so, as I would love to have more of them as I love their armored heads. 

The final model I have primed this week is the Squigboss with Gnasha squig (ot the seeing-eye squig as I think it looks like with the harness) and I already know how I will paint this model as I have a planned scheme for all my Gloomspite Gitz. 

When I had painted the first layer of skin on my Ironguts I wanted to sit and work more with minis that day, but didn't really feel like painting more so I decided to start on a unit I haven't built before.
I started to build a Leviathan Dreadnought with ranged weapons. Interestingly Games Workshop lists this as both a Leviathan Dreadnought and a Leviathan Siege Dreadnought, but it looks like it is the exact same model with the exact same weapon options. I have two of this unit and one Close combat one, so I look forward to adding them to the Gatekeepers in due time. My idea is to try and weather them a bit by stipling some metal color on the blue paint so that they look their age while still looks like they are being well taken care of. Since they are relics from the Horus Heresy and I plan to have them in my 40K army I think this is only fitting. And if I should play a game of 30K then it just looks like they have been in combat and seen some action and I think these Dreads probaly would be where the fighting is most intense so it would work well there too. 

I haven't yet decided on what weapon options to give them, apart from the very cool four barreled Storm Cannon. There is a Cyclonic melta lance and a Grav-flux bombard to choose from, so I will read a little bit in the rule books to see what the different weapons do and how they seem to work on a field of battle, and either I find that one is so much better than the other that I need to take it for both, or I will make one of each. But I love the look of the Storm cannon, so both of them will field that but I think one would have it on the right arm and the other on the left just for the diversity. I might consider getting a third in the future and give it two Storm cannons just because I think it would look really scary, but I will read the rules and see if that is a legal option first. Also I nned to get the model and an extra weapons sprue first. 

The Leviathan is rather massive and big compared to a regular dreadnought, but still I though they would be even bigger looking at pictures of them. But I haven't placed them beside a Contemptor or a regualr old-style box yet so I might change my mind on them whan I do that nce they are fully assembled. I will post a picture in here for comparison when I do that. 

So far the Leviathan has the legs and most of the torso assembled, so I need to finish the top and back of the torso and add the arms and weapons an then glue it all together. I amsure it will look awesome, and I hope my painting will do it justice.