8th edition is out

Saturday was the official release for the new edition of Warhammer 40.000. We have reached the 8th edition now, and the storyline has been moved forward a bit through the last releases in the 7th edition with the resurrection of Robute Guilliman, the fall of Cadia and all the other things that happened.

For the relase there was a new boxed set called Dark Imperium. With this box Games Worskhop have done many great moves.
- They have included the rulebok with all the rules you need to play 8th edition right in the box. -this means you can atually play after just buying the set, no hidden costs to start. They still want you to buy the codexes and other books though.
- The box is really beautifully packaged
- It introduces the Primaris Marines, a new type of super-Space Marines made to keep the Imperium safe and destroy the forces of Chaos.

I had to get this box, and spent the entire day yesterday at Games Worshop in Oslo building Primaris Marines and trying out the new rules in a game.

I hope I can prime my first models later today (weather permitting), so I can start painting them during the comming week. I plan to paint them up just like my other Gatekeepers. Since I started painting my Space Marines chapter many years ago, Games Workshop has replaced their paints a few times. But I am armed with the colors that will match the best to what I have used before.

The Dark Imperium box includes two types of Marines. You have the noble Ultramarines with their new and improved Primaris Marines, and then you have the foul Deathguard with their Plague Marines and their minions and partners.

Today I assembled 13 of 22 Primaris Marines from the box.

I assembled 2 Space Marine Lieutenants. They are something new, as we only had Captains and Sergeants before. This has made me think that we will see Guilliman doing some exceptions from the Codex Astartes and that we will have chapters with more than 100 Space Marines soon. After all, what else would we need Lieutenants for?

The Captain I left for building the way I usually do (painting as I build), as he has a cape that needs to get special attention,

The Standard Bearer is a veteran Marine called an Ancient with some pretty nifty rules. He was the first Marine I assembled from the box. I had to glue his backpack twice to get it to sit tight, so hopefully there will be no future issues with it.

Then there are 2 5-man Intercessor squads, and I have assembled 1 of them. This is the equivalent of the regular Space Marine 10-man squad, and the basic troops of the Primaris Marines.

The box also contains a 3 man Inceptor squad and this is the buffed up version of the assault marines. I have not built these yet. This edition GW want the flying troops to be in the air, so they come with some new flying stems that makes it possible to field them in the air. I am not sure about how I like these compared to the old assault marines, as their weapons look  little weird with shields on their barrels. But I am sure I'll grow in to liking them as I build and paint them up.

Finally for the good guys the box contain a 5 man Hellblaster squad. This is four marines and a sergeant armed with plasma rifles. They will fill the role of the old devastators. They look mean, and pack a great punch. Only problem is that plasma might blow up in your face from overheating when firing it. In the game we played, my squad ended up in a firefight with a Helldrake, and I lost 2 men to overheating in my first round of shooting.

I have not started to look at the Deathguard models yet but they include 10 Marines, 20 humans and 1 mean looking drone.

I will put pictures up here as I get everything assembled and painted up. I plan to paint at least my good guys up alongside my other projects, so I can use them if GW Oslo holds some gaming events in the future where I can participate.

Long awaited update...

I'll start with a follow-up from the last blogpost. The test models of my Daemonettes are almost done. I have painted up two of them with the same colors used on different areas, and I need to decide who I like the best. The only thing that is 100% decided is that the skin will be Daemonette Hide, I mean if I don't use that for them then who should it be for... That means my Deamonettes will be a lot darker than what other people have painted, so I must find a good combination for my palette to brighten them up a bit.

I have done some more work on the Dwarfs too, but still not finished anything new. I've started to paint the hair and beards of my Imperial Dwarfs and also done some more work on the bodies of the Longbeards. The master plan is still to have a board with Dwarfs (or Duardin or Dispossessed as they are called in Age of Sigmar) for Armies on Parade 2017, and I still plan to do it mostly as described earlier in this blog.

This Saturday Games Workshop Oslo held a record attempt. They wanted to set a new record for most infantry models on a gaming table. The rules were simple, the models had to be playable for Warhammer 40K (or Horus Heresy/30K) and they had to have at least 3 different colors on them plus a finished base. These are the same rules as Games Workshop have for using models in tournaments held in their stores. 

They had the old record with about 1700 figures (set earlier this year), and their goal this time was 3000 (later they updated their goal to 4000). 

The new record for most infantry models on a gaming table is... *drumroll* 4422 figures. 

The average number of models that people brought was 220. I managed to scrape together 28 models in total, while the one who brought the most had 750 (among them two full companies of Dark Angels).

The good thing about participating in this record attempt was that I had to get some models based, as all my finished models with wash and bases are in cabinets at the summer house in Sweden.

So i grabbed all the 40K infantry models I had that was at least primed and put them in one of my Crusade cases and set off for the painting table at the store.

The first thing I finished was the Ork Mek that I started to paint in the color class at Games Workshop in January. I gave the base a good slab of Martian Ironearth and it was the first time I used the spatula to get it on the base and not a stiff brush. I think it worked out well, so I immediately started with the base of my Imperial Pilot (don't know the official Games Workshop name for this one). When he was done I used the same basing material for 14 Space Marines from my 2nd Company. They were not 100% finished as they needed some details fixed, but they had all their colors on. I also added a Space Marine captain (master of Relics) that I originally painted up for my Armies on Parade board for 2015, but I didn't find a place for him then so he's been standing among my "almost ready" models since that. 

And finally for the Space Marines they got joined by a Dark Angels Interrogator-Chaplain that had all his basic colors done but was missing some highlighting.

When this was done, there were a little time left, so I based my Imperial Guard squad with two females in it. This time I used Astrogranite as basing material. My idea is that the Guard will be more in to the urban fighting, so this woud look better for them. Some of my Guard units will be based on the sculpted Sector Imperialis bases, and I think the grey Astrogranite goes best with this. 

This unit is not done by far, but they had 4 colours on them (black primer, Mechanicus Standard Grey, Administratum Grey and Bugmans Glow) and I managed to add Castellan Green to the canteen covers, grenades and a few other parts.

With all models that could be present for the record attempt placed in their appropriate places on the table, I still wanted to paint more. So, I started to work on my Ork Boyz. After using Naggaroth Night on my Mek I got a liking for that color, so I gave a handful of Boyz dark purple clothing and helmets. Among them were two heavy weapon Boyz armed with heavy stubbers.

I also sat for a few hours at home on Sunday working more on the Boyz, so the result now is that I have several Boyz just missing the final wash and their bases before they are ready to join the comming Waaagh. One carrying a mine (not sure if he really is part of the Boyz or some sort of speciaist) one with shoota and choppa, two with heavy stubbers and one with grenades. I also have one with a chainblade that is washed and just waiting for a base. There are several Boyz in my Crusade case just waiting for some attention, and when I get back home from a short spring holliday I will try and do both Dwarfs and Boyz. 

General update

Since the last post I have had a period where I haven't done much building and painting, but now I am at it again.

Since last time I have done a little work on the two Dwarf units that I have started on. My first unit of Longbeards have their armor painted now, and after their boots are painted, I will go on to paint heads and arms before glueing it on. This is a unit of ten figures, but I will paint up my other Longbeards in the same way, and will probably end with two units of fifteen with full command, or if I want smaller units, three units of ten where only two have full command. These warriors are quite different from previous Dwarf minis, so it will not be natural to mix them with older versions.

I'm also almost done painting the torsos of my oldest set of Dwarf warriors, the unit I have decided to call my Imperial Dwarfs as they have gone to live in the city amongst the humans, but come back to the keep to fight with their brothers in the upcomming battle that they are all mustering for. I will start shortly to prime and paint their arms and heads.

I have also come quite far in painting a unit of regular Warriros, and have started to paint and assemble my first Gyrocopter. The Gyrocopter will take some time still, as I have to prime all small parts manually since I neeed to paint the insiode of the Gyrocopter during assembly. 

Since my last update, I have gotten hold of some Genestealers for Warhammer 40.000 and so far I have assembled a Goliath Rockgrinder (a truck with a huge shield with a huge shield with rotating saws that grinds up rocks), a box called Broodcoven (sort of the 3 leaders of the clan with two small accolytes), and I am in the process of thinking out what colors to use on their skin to make them look almost human while still having a hint of alien on them (so far I am leaning towards Cadian Fleshtone with a purplish wash). 

The Rockgrinder will be painted in light gray (Celestra Gray) with an orange stripe down the front. The orange will be the same as in the uniforms of the troops to match it together.

The regular Genestealers will have orange uniform jackets (Jokaero Orange) with dark grey (Mechanicus Standard Grey) pants, black boots and light grey (Celestra Grey) armor. This will be the same for both miners and soldiers, but with the changes needed to make it work. The Genestealers in other clothing will probably get some sort of red or yellow clothing to fit in but still look different enough that they stand out on the battlefield. 

I have also started on a few test models from my Daemonettes of Slaanesh and so far it seems they will be a little darker and a lot more purple than the ones in the regular art from Games Workshop. I mean when they have a paint called Deamonette Hide, isn't that the natural color to use on their hide? I'll drop by Games Workshop later today and see if they can help me with a color to use on the hair.

Pictures of the things mentioned in this post will be shown as soon as I have anything worth showing.

Ork mek

I went to my local Games Workshop store yesterday, to spend a day painting miniatures. I got to work quite a lot on a unit of Imperial Guard with two female troopers. I didn't have time to finish it, so I will post pictures at a later time.

They were having a painting class teaching color theory, and the use of that in painting miniatures, so I thought I would attend. The only thing you needed was an assembled and primed miniature, and I had an Ork Mek in my box.

First the entre model got a layer of Naggaroth Nightshade (dark purple) and a wash of Druchii Violet. I left that as the color for all his clothes, and painted over the other parts.
I knew I wanted dark green skin, so I used Castellan Green for that, as I seem to remember that this is the color I have used on my other Orks. If it should be a little off it doesn't matter, as Orks comes in many shades.
A good color to use as a third color according to the color theory was dark yellow, so I used Retributor Armour almost as much as the green. This was used for several metal parts, amongst others the large unit he carries on his back.

I then needed neutral colors for the rest, so I used Dryad Bark on his boots and helmet and on his gloves. Leadbelcher for all parts that i wanted to look metallic, as a shinier metal color would look a bit off for an Ork.
For his tools and weapon I wanted to use more than just Leadbelcher, so I used Abaddon Black, and that was also used on all the tubing on the model as red (that i normally use) would really stand out too much and draw all the attention.
His teeth is painted Rakarth Flesh as this is a neutral color that fits well for this purpose.
The eye lenses needed to be a bright contrast color to try and draw attention to the face, so I used Flash Gitz Yellow on those.

I still need to work on his base, but I will do that when I have painted up a few more Orks. A lot of my 40K figs will have Martian Ironearth or Ironcrust as bases, but some of my Imperial Guard units are city fighters so they will get the grey Astrogranite or Astrogranite Debris bases. And I will probably also use some brown eathtones on parts of my armies, so I am thinking either Astrogranite or brown for the base on this ork.

Pictures of the first finished Dwarfs

After promising pictures for a long time both on the blog and on a Facebook group, I really felt it was time to deliver. So here are a few pics of my finished unit of Dwarf Rangers, and some characters. The pictures are taken outside on my balcony table, as it was the only place I felt the light was good enough to show the colors.

To show off a single miniature from the unit, I took two pictures of the musician. The first is from the front and the second from the side showing off more of his horn.

Here is a picture of the unit of Dwarf Rangers. They are built from the Thunderer/Quarreller sprues, but to make them stand out as Rangers I have given everyone a two handed axe that they carry on their backs. The only exceptions are the few dwarfs carrying an axe already (musician and standard bearer), they carry a crossbow on their back instead.

The unit is painted in greens to be one with nature. Their armor and shirts are painted Elysian Green, and I used Castellan Green for their capes.
The chainmail is painted Stormhost Silver. This is a quite shiny metallic, and I think that is a good match for dwarf armor. All my dwarf chainmail will have this color, in contrast to the plated mail that for many dwarfs will be painted Warplock Bronze (same as the musician's horn). This so I can shof the details on both, as some Dwarfs wear chainmail with plates outside.
All leather (boots, belts, cuffs, etc) are painted Mournfang Brown. This is one of three brown colors used. The other two are Rhinox Hide for the garments that some dwarfs show under their chainmail. This is meant to be rougher, unprocessed leather. The final brown is the Doombull Brown that I have used for wooden parts like the crossbows.
I have gone for three hair colors for my Dwarfs: Blonde hair is Averland Sunset, brown hair is Skrag Brown and gray hair is Celestra Grey.
For the skin I have used Bugmans Glow, and the gold is Retributor Armour. I have also used some Leadbelcher for the metallic parts that aren't supposed to be processed too much.

While working on the Rangers, I also painted up two Runelords. One of them has the same cape as my Rangers, while the other is painted Caledor Sky. I see I need to do a little bit of cleanup on the details of the blue cape when I look at the picture.
The one on the far right here is a classic metal Dwarf Lord with great weapon. This is one of my many favorite dwarf figures as he looks like he is studying the battlefield. There are no special colors on this one, just the standard colors used throughout the army.

When I bought the dwarf on the left he was a special character named Grimm Burloksson, but with the new rules that came with Age of Sigmar he is now just known as a Cogsmith. To me he will always be Grimm (but maybe with another name to fit in to my backstory). Beside Grimm is the Warden King, formerly known as Belegar Ironhammer. Here I tried to use the new gemstone paints for the first time, and although I think it looks nice I am not sure I did it right...

This is the Dwarfs that are completely finished at the moment, alongside a unit of old metal Ironbreakers that has been done for a while. I also have a lot of painted figures that I either painted ages ago or that I inherited, but I would like to revisit them before I let them in to my army. Some of the ones I have painted have bases that doesn't fit in to my current plan. If possible I will remove the rocks from their bases, or alternatively cut the bases off and replace them with new ones.King Alrik with shieldbearers and a unit of miners are examples of figures that I need to give this kind of treatment. I also like to repaint the inherited Dwarfs as I would like to have painted my own army.

Hopefully it will not be too long before more Dwarfs can be shown here...

My thoughts for Armies on Parade 2017

Since I didn't get to participate in Armies on Parade 2016, I have started to think of the 2017 event that probably will take place in October 2017.
My plan (as stated earlier) is to participate with the Dwarfs that I didn't manage to finish in time for 2016.
I had planned to present the gates of a Dwarf hold with some mountains, but after seeing how the entries were for 2016 I am now thinking of making two "levels". I will make the top level as intended, but under it I will have another board with caves and tunnels of the hold.
I plan to make at least 3 storylines on the bottom level, one with some Night Goblins that have managed to breech the hold, and are being met by Irondrakes lined up to take care of them.
The second with Grudge Ponies going in and out of the mine on top level, and seeing others going down in to the mine shafts on the bottom level where miners will be at work.
Then the third will be small cave that is closed off and only visible from the front of the board, where Grombrindal dressed as a vampire hunter will take care of a vampire.

The idea with Grombrindal is just to add a little extra to the board, and it will be a very nice way to show off a lovely miniature that doesn't really fit in to a traditional dwarf army.

I plan to use four blocks of wood as support to keep the top level in place, and around these I will have the tunnels so that I get as much light as possible in to the lower level of the display. Then the blocks of wood will keep everything in place without being visible. If I do it this way then placing the miniatures on the bottom level should be quite easy and still it will give the feel of a cave.

There will be a hole in the top level where my mine shaft is, so that the Grude Ponies can pass up and down to the mines below. Originally I had just planned to make a little hole in the styrofoam up top and paint it black to indicate a mine, but now I will build the ramp down to the lower level and maybe I will put Grombrindal in a cave behind that ramp. This depends a bit on the strength of the material and how big I need to make the ramp. I plan to carve the details out and then protect it with a thin coat with plaster strips. This will both add stability and make painting a lot easier. Then I will add thin wooden strips for mineshaft support girders.
In this area I will place miners and time will show if they will be working or if they are preparing to go fight.

In the main cave I will place the Irondrakes and the Night Goblins, but how I will do this I have not yet decided. I think I need to play around with the design and see how much space I have and how things will look.

On top I will need to make some changes to the gate to be able to field two cannons on the top guarding the entrance. This is just using some plasticard to raise the stone blocks, and should be done quite easily.
Then I will see if I should add an observation balloon or two as well as the Badyear Blimp, or if the blimp will be enough. I don't know this until I have made the design and seen how much space I have available on the mountain slopes.No matter what I end up with I will make some observation balloons for the army, as I think it would fit my back story with the engineer that has made the blimp. He started with balloons but then got the idea to take the balloons to the next level and thereby creating the blimp. But I will need to have some Gyrocopters in the display as well, so time will show what there is room to place on the board.

Dwarfs progress report

It's finally been some progress to my production of Dwarfs. I have the Ranger unit of twenty Rangers all painted, washed and based, alongside four single miniatures.

I will post pictures as soon as I am home while there is daylight so I can get some nice pictures of the miniatures. I thought the washing should go real quick, but with six different washes it took some time to get it done. With the pictures I will also describe the colors and washes.

At the moment I am working on a unit of twenty Warriors with full command, they are getting along quite nicely, and they are the first time I have used bright blue on my dwarfs (I do have some Miners painted in really dark blue from earlier) and I like the look of it. A handful of them are wearing capes, and they are all painted purple with gray linings. 

These warriors will all be armed with double-handed axes, except for the three Dwarfs that are the command unit. The leader will have a big axe that he holds up in the air while the other hand is giving the command to move forward, the standard bearer and the musician will both have an axe in the hand where they are not holding the standard or the horn.

I might expand this unit to thirty or forty in the future, at the moment I'm thinking thirty is enough but time will tell where I end. After all, I will have several units of Warriors so the total amount of Warriors will be the same no matter the unit size.

I have started to re-think my Ironbreaker/Irondrakes decision as I think thirty Irondrakes might be too much. If I keep them in separate units it should be ok with Ironbreakers with different looks. So I might make one unit of twenty or two units of ten Irondrakes, and one unit of twenty Ironbreakers. They are not first in line to be finished, so I'll see where I stand when time comes to build them.

I have a unit of thirty Thunderers primed, as well as a unit of ten Longbeards and a unit of sixteen old-school Dwarfs. I have started to paint the old-school ones up a little, and they will be the next unit I work on after the ongoing Warrior unit is done.

Ï have also started on a White Dwarf subscribers only miniature, where Grombrindal (THE White Dwarf)  is dressed as a vampire hunter and standing on top of a coffin with a vampire in it, ready to hammer a stake in to its heart to kill it. This will not be a miniature that will be used in my normal dwarf army, but I will have it as a miniature on my shelves and I will use it for the 2017 Armies on Parade (more about that in a later post). This is a resin miniature, but so far I have not experienced the problems with getting the glue to stick as I usually experience with these miniatues.

At the moment I have started to prime it with Imperial Primer as there are so many small pieces I don't think using the usual spray will be the best choice this time.

The final miniature in the making at the moment is my first Gyrocopter. The Gyrocopter sets comes with the choice of buliding a regular Gyrocopter or a Gyrobomber, I will have a few of both in my army (as well as my blimp that also will carry bombs and an organ gun) but for this first build I am going for the regular Gyrocopter.

I am thinking of painting it a greyish blue as I think this will look good for a flying machine.

I have started to prime the cockpit, as this must be painted on the inside before assembly.

The pilot is glued together, and he will also be primed and painted before being glued in to the cockpit. 

For future Gyrocopter builds, I'm thinking of taking the sprues outside and priming them before cutting the parts off, as I think it will be a lot of job doing it the way I do now with manual primer all over.