Mayday! Mayday! - Middlehammer monthly painting theme

Hi all,

In a perfect follow up to my last entry this post is about the Middlehammer group's monthly painting theme for May 2016, and it is a cracker!

The trick with a theme like this is for it to be focussed enough to give it meaning but also broad enough to allow enough people to get involved. Mark Evans has been fiendishly clever in hitting that balance perfectly, whilst combining all the things I love about painting themes (see my last post if you're interested) with this months' theme of Mayday! Mayday!

The idea is to rescue a long forgotten (neglected) project or maybe a previous botched paint job - something that is badly in need of some TLC - blow off the dust and cob webs (this can literally be true in the case of some things in my lead pile, I was picking wood lice husks out of a box of random pre-slottas earlier on today... yuck) and get it finished by the end of the month.

There have already been some early starters, with Mark himself embarking on a project to finish some Shining Spear Eldar Aspect Warriors, fellow Middlehammerer Grant resurrecting a 15 year old paint job on a fearsome looking Ork Boss, and Craig from Sinders Miniature Painters posting some pics of a beautifuly painted Squat in Exo Armour with aims of completing the rest of the accompanying squad - can't wait for more of those Craig!

I'm going to try and rescue some later edition (not sure which?) plastic Goblin Wolfriders that I bought as a bit of a junk lot from e-bay ages ago. Lots of repairs needed here (broken banner pole, missing tails on a couple of wolves, broken and missing lower arm on one of the goblins etc...) and paint job is more like damage (no undercoat before slapping on paint to thickly in places, and then just brown glaze on naked plastic in other places), but I'm not going to bother stripping them, just try and renovate to basic table top standard. That was always going to be the plan with these. We've already used them in our WHFB4 campaign Crisis in Caledor and they were frankly letting the side down in their current state. This was in keeping with their disappointing performance on field, being some of the only casualties in the greenskins near total victory in Battle #2. So, they need to be given a bit of a make over to restore their morale apart from anything else.

The first task is to try and match the basing material that has been applied to three of the ten models, so I've been out in the garage to start that off. No time to waste!

Here you can see the three that came with weird granules already attached. I'm guessing it's immiation sand/gravel, for people who can't be bothered drying out builders sand in their oven, and having to remind their wives that it is not a batch of garlic breadcrumbs and no she shouldn't put some on the lasagne...

Luckily I had done exactly all of those things earlier today, so I had plenty of sand available to try and match the basing material for the other seven.

And in a really blurry mobile phone picture you can only just about really obviously still tell the difference... never mind. I'll slap some green paint on and that should hide a multitude of sins.

April Fools! - Goblin Doom Diver

So, it turns out I love a good online monthly pun based painting theme...

You know, like the now well established 'Orctober'? Or the very successful 'Deadcember' theme on the Oldhammer Community page (my contribution to Deadcember can be viewed here, I missed 'Vermember' 2015 sadly, but have some old school plastic skaven lined up and waiting for this year), or my less successful Middlehammer entry to 'Slannuary' of 5th Edition Saurus warriors (not too much of a stretch that one, but not quite Oldhammer enough)?

The ever approachable Mark Evans, of Middlehamer and Animosity Wargaming infamy, and I had been having a bit of a chat about possible themes for the Middlehammer group and the role they can play in building the community. Sadly I was unable to join in with the Middlehammer facebook group's March for March theme (where you had to paint a regiment of infantry) because life stuff happened, but I thought it was a great idea to motivate us to get a whole block of troops done! I hope to join in next year if it runs again, although I'd also like to suggest 'Imperial March' as a possible theme. It would allow both Fantasy and Rogue Trader/40k fans to get involved (themes need to be nice and inclusive!), and it tips a nod to a certain much loved Sci Fi franchise ;)

Do you have any ideas for a painting theme? The more terrible the pun the better! If so post them up as suggestions on the Middlehammer fb page and see what the feedback is like. I guess at least a months' notice for everybody is a good idea...

Anyway, this month's Middlehammer painting theme was right up my alley - April Fools!

I have been really enjoying painting fantasy non-combatants recently, and there is plenty one might choose in that vein, but that would really be more in keeping with Oldhammer than Middlehammer I feel (only my opinon - not looking to start that argument here!). No, for something that really said 'MH' it could olnly be the drug crazed lunacy of the Goblin Doom Diver!

Here he is, the loveable little nut job.

These are iconic to me of WHFB 4th edition Goblins, plus I'd recently purchased one for my growing greenskin horde which is being used in our WHFB4 campaign Crisis in Caledor (look out for new Battle Report soon, with greatly improved pictures and scenery), and I like to use the monthly themes to spur me to get things painted that are either directly related to current projects, or stand a very high chance of actually being used in a game in the near future where possible.

I also wanted to use this as an opportunity to work on my basing, which is one of my Hobby Resolutions for 2016, so in keeping with the background of the unit I decided to include some tiny putty mushrooms. It was only the second time I had ever bothered to do this for a base, the first being approx 20 years ago for Orion King of the Woods, who at the time was the most ambitious and successful paint job I'd ever completed.

I now really regret not swapping the base for the goblin with one facing forward, but can't be bothered to go back and change it as I'm keen to keep moving on with other projects.

Here are the two pieces with half their base coats on, and the bases worked up.

I actually studied some pictures of Fly Agaric mushrooms (Amantia Muscaria the classic red and white toadstools) and noted that the white dots are far from symetrical and certanly not rounded in shape, they are like little irregular flakes in fact, so I tried to capture that but am now worried it looks too much like poor brushmanship. After catching myself obsessing about the accuracy of markings on a tiny putty mushroom less than a centimetre in diameter, I first realised how far I had come in my hobbying since deciding to get back into it properly last year, and then thankfully got over myself and moved on with the painting of the actual models.

A view of the two pieces in progress. Note the naturalistic markings on the Toadstools. NOTE THEM DAMN YOU!

Here you can see the attempts at different finishes on the metal work. The workings of the wheel are deliberatley more grimey whcih I think works. Not sure about the bronze hand in the end as it possible fades into the brown a bit too much.

I decided early on that I wanted the catapult to use fairly muted and realistic colours, so went for a controlled pallette of browns and dark metallics. For example, I used bubonic brown with a flesh wash for the 'elastic' as I imagine this to be made from some monstrous body byproduct, the alchemically treated and stretched pizzle of a manticore perhaps? I used Boltgun metal over black for most of the metal, using more flesh wash (slightly glossier than brown ink) to create a greasy, rusty run off sort of look around the axle and outer wheel fixings, while I tried to create some variation by using a Tin Bitz and Shining Gold to make the hand gripping the arms of the catapult appear a dull bronze, which also ties in to other elements of my existing forces. There IS quite a lot of RED in my greenskin horde, but this is balanced by grubby, muddy tones in many places overall to make feature colours stand out and to add realism. In this case it also serves to allow the Goblin whackjob to take centre stage with a more colourful look to fit the April Fools! theme.

I'm pretty happy with the muted and realistic colour scheme on the catapult, although I might make some changes were I to do it again.

Next time I'd probably go for a naturalistic look on all the skulls to break up the monotony of metal and wood.

I wanted the goblin to really bring home the April Fools! theme so had always intended hm to be wearing some form of Jesters' motley. I decided on simple red and yellow quarters, the red to fit in with the rest of the army, and the dirty yellow being a nice counterpoint but still well within the Greenskin's preferred MH colour spectrum. Any rope and wood was given the same treatment of Snakebite Leather or Bestial Brown followed by dark brown/black ink across both pieces to help tie them in, the dark bronze and iron colours were also repeated on the goblin. The Goblin flesh was a very simple job but one I'm really happy with, Snot green base coat, orc flesh wash, Snot Green hightlights, then mixing in Badmoon Yellow to finish. Worm purple for the tongue, bleached bone for the teeth, and blood red eyes as always.

I'm really happy with how the face turned out in particular.

I wanted to keep the wings dark so the jester's costume would stand out, but not brown or black, so I opted to mix my own very dark blue-purple-black, which was then washed down with blue ink. I should have done more work to highlight this with some of the Liche Purple I used in the mix, but again I didn't want to take away from the jester's garb so kept it muted.

I think this view shows it is lacking a few highlights on the metal and the wings, but I'm fairly happy with the execution of the colour scheme I had planned.

The two finished elements together.

Still need to work on those bases though...

I'm pretty chuffed overall with this piece, and I certainly enjoyed it immensely. I also doubt I'd have even started it let alone finished it during April without idea being spurred by the Middlehammer painting theme. This fool is now ready to make an appearance in our WHFB4 campaign alot earlier than otherwise, so it shows what good motivation a Monthly painting theme can provide!

 
Although sadly I've not seen too many others posting their own contributions, that is part of why more themes would be really good to encourage more community content from the Middlehammerers, so I hope you've enjoyed this post and that we see more themes and more contributions in the future!

Beakie! Beakie! Beakie!

Yes, I know the Robot's name was actually Twiki, but allow me some poetic licence

No this is not a mispronounced exclamation of support for the Robot from Buck Rogers in the 25th Century, although if you want I could totally do a blog post on that!? No, oh OK... I'll carry on with this post about the Oldhammer Community's Beakie Week then.

For those who didn't know this last week saw the 30th Anniversary of the launch of the iconic Space Marines from GW. Now, love them or loathe them for what they came to represent in terms of the Grimdark takeover and the narrowing of the range of GW games and models, their success and appeal is undeniable, and for me, like many, the Mark VI or 'Beakie' Power Armoured marines of the original releases are the still the best. 'Beakie Week' is a celebration of their 30th Anniversary and all things Beakie!


This is my contribution. The painting is strictly table top standard only, but here are some of my MkVI Fire Angels (veterans of the Badab War, first seen in Rt Compendium).

Glowing LED fire/smoke thing by AVP Shaun

Ruins by my mate Big Dave, the Scenery Savant.

Their 'Manta' class Speeder Gunship has been shot down by enemy fire! Techmarines are trying to affect repairs, while Apothecaries from the 1st and 10th companies scan the surrounding area using auspex and photon search light. With typical discipline and tactical acumen a combat squad of veterans prepares to defend the crash site - but what brought them down?

The pilots are from the Fire Angels 8th company Test Pilot corps. The models are the crew from the RT Land Speeder. Let's not talk about what happened to their legs to fit them into that cockpit, but please don't ask them to stand up.

The Apothecaries are from the 1st Company (on the right, converted with a simple backpack swap with the later Mk VII Apothecary, which I think works really well with the pose of the older sculpt)

The techmarine in this pic is a conversion from RTB01 legs and the body of the techmarine jet bike rider. The Giant drill is from the Orc Battle Wagon set I think?

Veteran marines adopt defensive positions, covering the specialists at work.

Turns out it was some Traitor scum! Squads of Black Legion and Alpha Legion advance, while a seditious Word Bearer lurks in the cover of the nearby ruins...

Traitor Marines spring their ambush, luckily the heavy weapons that downed the Manta are nowhere to be seen (because they are carried by Mk VII marines, who are keeping respectfully out of sight).

Alpha Legion marines move out from behind cover to engage the Fire Angels. The Word Bearer seems less keen, but shouts encouragement from the ruins.

Black Legion/occassional Traitor Flesh Tearers eagerly charge into combat with the hated loyalists

I painted up a number of small squads of traitor marines for use both as part of a larger Chaos Marine Army, and for GMs use as enemy 'crews' in our currently lapsed multi level 40K/Epic/Inquisimunda campaign 'Vortigan V'- many of which are rescue and repair jobs from other half finsihed and terrible paintjobs and conversions either from e-bay job lots, donations from friends over the years, or my own bits box. I've only shown the Mk VI ones here but there are some Mk VII examples too, traitor Blood Angels and Successor chapter marines who have been tempted away from the light of the Emperor by the perniious scheming of the Word Bearer you can see skulking in the background in the pictures. We also have some Alpha Legion tactical marines, and a close combat squad of Black Legion (who sometimes double as Traitor Flesh Tearers). These were converted with a nod towards those early Mk VI conversions from the modelling section of the Rogue Trader book.

A slightly better shot of the Manta Speeder-Gunship (there is a solitary MK VII marine in the turret, but we wont mention him)

The Fire Angels' 'Manta' class Speeder-Gunship, as some of you will no doubt recognise, is a conversion of an old 1980s plastic toy from the Manta Force range.

Manta Force, in all it's 80s glory!

This is what it looked like all neatly packed away, which must have been a very rare sight indeed. I can see why someone's mum marked the occassion with a photo.

A conversation with a fellow Oldhammerer on fb led me down memory lane with Manta Force and reminded me of previous plans to gather more examples from the range to convert for use in RT/40K. Hopefully my ebay bidding does not get out of control!

Thanks for visiting! There will definitely be more posts about my Fire Angels in the future, and hopefully some more Manta Force conversions to show you, so I hope you come back :)

Crisis in Caledor! - Ride for the Beacon! A Warhammer Fantasy Battle Report

Hi all, and welcome to episode two of Crisis in Caledor! That's the name for the WHFB4 campaign I'm playing with AVP Shaun. This game was actually played over a month ago, but a combination of yet another visit by Father Nurgle to our house, and the need to concentrate on some real life stuff for a bit has meant a long delay in publishing this. We are actually due to play the follow up scenario to this game next week, so I thought I'd better get this one sorted out.

This game ended up being a massive rush as we were playing after work and had to fit it in around my kids bed time, so apologies that we only got photos of the set up and not any of the subsequent action. Further apologies for the poor quality photos, which were kindly provided by my wife on her mobile phone, while we were still trying to get ourselves ready to start.

That's me on the right, consulting the WHFB4 rule book. AVP Shaun is sagely considering his battle plans.

The story so far...

The proud High Elves of Caledor find the forces of evil on their very doorstep with no explanation! So far it has been a rag tag horde of Orcs and Goblins, but something more sinister must be driving this sudden and inexplicable invasion of the Elves sacred homelands. 

In the intitial encounter of this campaign the first wave of the greenskin horde broke against the resolve and professionalism of the small band of High Elf defenders of a coastal watch tower. Let's continue the story to see if we can find out more...

As they watch the few remaining orcs and goblins flee back down to the craggy beaches and sea caves from whence they must have come, the Elves take their opportunity to deploy the tower's deadly Repeater Bolt Thrower, and saddle the small number of horses normally used for mounted patrols. Before they'd even finished polishing the guilded wings of the ornate warmachine with their military issue polishing doillies, they could already see the second wave of wretched greenskins climbing to the top of the hills in front of the watch tower.

High Elf captain and noted Spearman Champion, Magnus Paulus turned to look up at his younger cousin as he swung himself into the saddle of his barded warhorse, gracing his older relative and commanding officer with a cocksure smile as his long blond hair blowing in the breeze. No wait! The breeze was in the other direction, and was too weak to be doing that to Mayal Flashearts' hair!

"Flash, have you paid that stupid sorceress to enchant your hair again!?" His cousin at least had the decency to look abashed.

"Confound it you fool, I've warned you what might happen if that hair gets in your eyes at a crucial moment in battle all because it has a life of its own! And besides, you know that enchantment gives people terrible split ends!"

"But cousin!" appealed young Mayal "You know the fillys like it!" he said gesturing to the appreciative gazes of the elven warhorses. That was the problem with breeding clever horses. They started getting ideas. Like not wanting to be ridden by elves whose hair clashed with their manes...

"Enough." Magnus Paulus held up a hand to stop what was already a ridiculous conversation. "You know what must be done? Ride for the beacon, light the signal fire. Do not look back. Keep your eyes out for trouble, Thanas and the others should have lit the fire at the first sign of trouble so something must have got to them first. I doubt the beacon is unguarded."

"Relax cousin" Mayal soothed "I know what I'm doing, and those Orcs we just sent packing were no match for our skill at arms. I can't see these goblins being made of any sterner stuff!"

He set his spurs to his mount and led his small unit of riders off to position themseleves for a straigh run to the beacon. Not a moment too soon as the massed ranks of Goblins let out a howl and began advancing on the tower. Magnus Paulus gripped his spear tightly. They were badly out numbered. He hoped Flasheart's confidence in Elven military skill would prove right.

Having been set up for a while now, I'm still checking rules. AVP Shaun is losing the will to live.

The scenario was for a battle of up to 6 turns, with additional victory conditions. If the Elves could get to the beacon and be in control of the area by the end of the game then they would get 5 VPs. If they could defend the tower and be in control of the area at the end of the game they would gain 3 VPs. If the Goblins could overwhelm the defenders and take control of the tower area by the end of the game they would get 5 VPs/ If they could keep the Elves away from teh beacon nad control that area by the end of the game they would get 3 VPs. Deployment rules meant that the greenskins could deploy anywhere along the length of their side of the board, but the Elves had a 12" by 12" square in the top corner of the board in which to set up. 

Turn One: The High Elves start things off and Magnus Paulus must have immediately face palmed as he saw his young cousin Mayal Flasheart wheel his Silverhelm Cavalry round to redeploy in the center of the battle field, where they obviously thought they were protected or at least obscured by the rocks and trees, ready to charge into the goblin lines. Mayal obvioulsly though the masse ranks of goblins would need some thinning out first if there was to be any hope of the Elves not being massacred. The other elves must have been distracted by this, knowing the plan as they did, as all but one of the archers missed and the one tha tdid hit rolled a one to wound, and altough the Repeater Bolt thrower took down three front rank goblin spearmen, the bolts failed to penetrate the second rank and the goblin advance continued unhindered.

Meanwhile, a pack of lightly armoured but very fast moving goblin wolf riders had been sizing up their chances of making a sucesfull charge through the trees against the Silverhelms. We'd discussed the terrain and what effects it would have on movement, and by the letter of the law the charge would probably not have been allowed due to the formation clipping the edges of terrain on both sides as they passed through, but they were within range and the highly manouvreable wolves in my mind would not have had a problem bounding over trees and rocks. So we allowed it. Then we determined that it would indeed be a flank attack.... could I change my mind about those terrain rules?

The Silverhelms pass their psychology test for the flank attack and hold firm in the subsequent combat, felling one wolf rider. Meanwhile the other Goblin wolf riders fire their bows with more hope than belief, but score two 6s to hit at long range and manage to kill an Elven archer, although the small unit of Orc Arrer boys the gibs have dragged along sullenly refuse to hit anything useful. The goblin Big Boss on his monstrous spider, captured in the sea caves and harnessed with salt crusted remains of ships rigging, skulks forward firing his bow at the Elven defenders but his arrow falls short. Never the less the greenskin advance lumbers on with the two Ogres moving up behind the main unit of goblin spearmen as they approach the Watch tower on its hill.

The greenskin horde lined up in classic fashion with missile tropps on the high ground and infantry, cavalry and shock troops positioned for various marches and charges. The High Elves however set up with their primary mission in mind, with their cavalry facing away from the enemy, towards the beacon at the other end of the table.

Turn Two: The confidence of the elves is clearly shaken. The archers fail to hit a single thing and are rapidly coming to regret their deployment below the hill as they are now exposed. The plan had been for the archers to advance down field to occupy the center, hopefully supporting both the defneders of the tower and the riders trying for the beacon, but with the Silverhelms already engaged in combat this was no longer possible. The bolt thrower again proved its worth mauling the advancing unit of goblin archers on wolves and sending the survivors fleeing back 8". In the centre Flasheart leads his cavalry to victory over the other goblin wolf riders, although losing one of their number in the process, the Silverhelms pursue and run down the fleeing greenskins and find themselves within 6" of the beacon!

The elven sense of victory is short lived however, as before they can take advantage of the vacated cover in the centre of the field the archers are charged by marauding Ogres. In a brief echo of their valour in the previous battle the archers not only pass their fear test, and withstand the Ogres feeble attacks, but they manage to score a number of hits in return. Sadly, they needed 6s to wound and none were forthcoming.

Meanwhile the Goblin spearmen advanced unmolested to the foot of the hill, and the Goblin Big Boss moved up in support on his Monstrous Spider. The Orc Arrer boys again failed to hit anything, with one being seen to be sracthing his arse with one of his arrows when he should have been shooting at the enemy. We weren't even using the animosity rules this time! Alas for the High Elves the goblin archers mobbed on the hill overlooking the bottom of the battle field peppered the Silverhelms flank with 7 out of 16 hitting, causing 4 wounds and one High Elf not making his save. The already small unit of High Elf cavalry was suddenly looking very underpowered.

Here you can see the whole deployment. Note the massed greenskins can occupy the whole length of their side of the table, where as the Elves are contained in the top corner. The beacon sits atop a hill at the bottom of the table.

Turn Three: In a crucial moment in the battle Mayal Flasheart's youth and inexperience cost him his life and the Elves the battle. Rather than manouvring back around the otherside of the beacon, out of bow range but within range to claim the VPs, he wheeled his mount and exorted his remaining companion to charge up hill at the unit of goblin archers. His plan may have been to force the unit to break and flee, hopefully spreading panic accross the greenskins back line and potentially saving his embattled kinsmen at the tower. Sadly his charge was not at quite enough of an angle to hit the goblins flank and the two Silverhelms crashed headlong into the mass of goblin archers, who had stood firm and shot their bows at point blank range causing yet another wound to the Elven cavalry.

Showing just how good their basic troops can be (though bloody expensive and therefore always outnumbered!) the High Elf archers score a number of hits against the Ogres and this time manage to wound one of the brutes twice. Sadly on their turn the Ogres would squash one of the elves into goo with their clubs in revenge. The small unit of archers was already in dire trouble when they were charged in the flank by the Goblin Big Boss on his Monstrous Spider, although they again pass all their psychology tests and stay in the fight.

The goblin wolf riders with bows who had been heading back to the beach finally pull themselves together enough to fire a volley of arrows, though tehy end up falling short. The Orc arrer boys miraculously score two hits against the Elen Spearmen on the opposite hill, though rumour after the battle was that these were two very wayward shots from the Orc's game of trying to hit the dead corpses that had been left from earlier in the battle, and were totally unintentional.

The formidable force of the Big Boss and Spider killing four archers, plus the one squashed by the Ogres, breaks the few remaining archers and they are run off the field. Back at the watch tower the main unit of goblin spearmen had finally climbed the hill and had forced combat with the spearmen, scoring an impressive 5 wounds to the spearmen's 1. Out of character for the brave High Elves, the Spearmen broke and retreated back to the doors of the tower. Thankfully the goblins could only follow up 4" so fell short of running them down and butchering them on the doorstep of the watch tower. Magnus Paulus just manages to issue instructions to pull the bolt thrower inside and get it up on the roof before he has to slam and bar the door to the tower, trapping them all inside.

A close up of the goblin forces set up in the middle of the battle line and challenging for control of the beacon.

Meanwhile, in a gory and ignoble end to the battle, Mayal as the last remaining Silverhelm simply could not do enough against the overwhelming numbers of goblin archers who do more than enough to win the combat and make him turn and flee desperately back down the hill. Tragically his line of retreat ran him straight into impassable terrain and the goblins easily catch him, devouring him and his steed alive.

So... In truth it was a whitewash and a well deserved victory for the greenskins. Some very poor tactical decision making/execution of manouvres on my part saw my plan fail pretty early on. However, the way the combats worked out with the Silverhelms not sticking to the plan, and the final failure of the break test by the elven spearmen seeing them run back into the tower made for a perfect narrative and set up for the next scenario, which I will bring to you (hopefully with much better pictures) in Episode 3 of Crisis in Caledor: - Siege of the Watch Tower!

Rogue Quest Level 1: Squat Bard

So what is Rogue Quest?

The idea is to collect, paint, and if necessary convert six Rogue Trader era/style miniatures each representing one of the classic Warhammer Quest(Hence Rogue Quest)/Dungeons and Dragons character classes: Fighter, Rogue, Mage, Cleric, Ranger, Druid, Bard, and Barbarian, to form an adventuring party in the Rogue Trader universe. I know, right! This idea is made of pure Awesome!

The first and most important thing to say is that this idea is stolen from two far more distinguished Oldhammerers than myself, namely JB/Asslessman at the excellent LeadPlague and Jon/Axiom at the equally excellent Magpie and Old Lead, and was further inspired by Alex at Leadballoony (which, by the way, is excellent) and his take on the Rogue Quest idea. I encourage you whole heartedly to check out these pages, they were a big influence on my wanting to start this blog, and the authors were really encouraging when I expressed a desire to start my own Rogue Quest project following their example. A shout out also to fellow Oldhammerer Jason Lye who came up with the goods when I appealed to the community as I just had to have that one particular miniature for this project and nothing else would do! This was all about 6 months ago mind you, and the project has fallen behind due to my main focus being on painting to order for my ongoing retro 80's D&D campaign. Anyway, for all these reasons, and more, for me Rogue Quest is proper Oldhammer, and I'm still really excited about this project.

As soon as I decided to start this project I knew I wanted to do a Squat Bard, and I had one of two miniatures in mind. Now the RT302 Squats are quintessential Rogue Trader, but I know I'm never going to collect a Squat army - too pricey to buy 'mint' by a long shot, and getting repalcement arms must be a nightmare - a Squat enthusiast once told me people sculpt their own, but that is beyond me for the moment, therefore so is a serious squat collection - but this project was the ideal opportunity to indulge and buy just one really good one! I found the advert below and circled the two models I had in mind, and appealed to the Oldhammer Community for help.

My first reference point. Note the names of the two circled in red. I definitely had a preference for 'Grom Atchison.'

Jason soon came to my aid saying that he had not just both the models circled available, but also the third Squat Musician from the series. "What's that, there is a third?" I exclaimed. Indeed there is, and when I checked the larger advert below I also noticed that the names of the two models I'd originally asked about have been transposed at some point, as sometimes happened back in the day. 

Note the names have been swapped between Grom Atchison and Galil Lankhester, with Mortimer Ghast making up the trio. I love the very 70s/80s vibe of the shoulder mounted stereo speakers.

Anyway, my heart was set on Grom, or Galil, or whatever, the one in the red cap. He just had the right vibe to me, and an idea was beginning to form in my head that would only work for that model.

 

Something about the peaked cap and aviator glasses was reminding me of someone...

Sven Spielboard is a Xenolinguistics expert formerly attached to the Adeptus Biologis, now... let's just say he's with another organisation. 

Born to Squat parents on an Imperial and mostly human world, Sven attended the Scholastica and excelled in linguistics, maths, and music. Going on to study xeno-anthropology and xenolinguistics at a postgraduate level it is a bitter irony in Sven's life that he is cut off from his own culture by having studied it closely from an academic point of view, but not having experienced much of it himself in real life settings. 

Now when he does meet other Squats he finds himself the awkward outsider, more observer than compatriot. To compensate Sven throws himself into his work, namely developing his own specialist 'sonic interface' equipment and accompanying database of xeno-communication forms that can be used to communicate with unknown alien life forms. (Watch this and you'll get the idea ;-) )

When the offer to join 'the unit' came, soon after he had been mentioned in despatches for his work diffusing a tense situation with local Eldar exodites at an Adeptus Biologis field experiment site on a remote feral world, Sven jumped at the chance. He wanted to the chance to seek out new and unknown life forms and test out his machine and its algorithms in more challenging and extreme situations, and this seemed to provide the perfect opportunity...

Front view of Sven Spielboard, Squat Bard, with his custom made, portable, and stylishly wood panlled Synthesiser and Speaker combination.

The colour scheme for Sven is a combination of the classic colour schemes seen in the adverts above. I've brought in the grey alongside the green and the red to make the overalls look more workman like and to keep the red as a stronger spot colour. Inking played a crucial part in this piece. I used Orlygg's highly recommended blend of brown and red inks for the skin tone, which I think is perfect for the ruddy look I wanted for this Squat. I also used a little undiluted blue ink on the aviator shades, and to add definition to the white keys on the synth-board.

You can just about make out the alternate red and white tabs on the back of the unit, inspired by my Dad's ancient stage amp and speakers. I finally had a justifiable reason to use my 'Insane Detail' brush.

I'm not entirely happy with the hair and beard, I wanted it to be more ginger, but it got to a point where I was happy with the overall look of the model and I really didn't want to risk messing anything up, so I've left it. This piece also marks an improvement in my basing technique, a stated aim of mine in my Oldhammer ambitions for 2016, although it is still basic and I'm regretting not filling in the tiny gaps at the side with putty, I'm much happier with this than my old painted bases. All in all, I think Sven is some of my best ever work and I've loved painting him, especially knowing he was going to be part of this project and coming up with his background as I went.

Here Sven can be seen keeping some Space Ork Raiders at bay with the help of an Imperial Navy trooper. I imagine he is is using his portable synthesiser/speaker unit to play them the 'Brown Note.' This may well have to be one of his special abilities in game.

I've already selected and collected four of my six 'adventurers', and the second member of 'the unit' is already half painted so I hope to be show casing them here soon. However, I'm still trying to get my hands on the character I want to lead this elite band, the Inquisitor with Power Weapon from the 072117 Forces of the Imperium release. A very kind member of the Oldhammer Community has tried to help me out by scouting for ebay listings but twice I have been unlucky. If anyone has this chap available for sale or trade please get in touch via the comments!

I hope you have enjoyed this first installment of my own Rogue Quest and will come back for Level Two - The Wyrd Beastmaster Druid. Don't forget to check out the others much better efforts at Rogue Questing using the links above!

This is the chap I'm after. Anybody got him lurking in their leadpile?

Dark Elf or Demon Samurai?

I've just 'finished' work on this guy, who has been on my table, half painted, for about 6 months. I'm guessing he's a Dark Elf, although for my short term purposes I've painted him up as a sort of Demon Samurai, hence the shield.

Now he's painted though and with my recently acquired copy of Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness, I can see him as a Dark Elf champion of Khorne in a future RoC warband! He's only level 5 at the moment I reckon. I'll have to think of a name for him.

He feels Oldhammer (i.e. circa 1979-92) to me, but the only marking on the tab was cDE in a rough oval without a date, which I sadly forgot to take a picture of earlier in the process.

He would be my first ever Dark Elf, and I know nothing about the range. Can anyone help ID him?

Thanks!

(please ignore horrible basing, I'm re-using a second hand base)

How I learned to stop hating GW and love Oldhammer…

"No fighting in the war room!"

How I learned to stop hating GW and love Oldhammer…


…or why playing Warhammer 40,000 is a lot like making love to a beautiful woman.

"You see Paul, selecting an Ork Warboss is a lot like making love to beautiful woman. First you have to count their teef, then you have to have a good feel of their squig, being careful not to let it bite you..."

It is certainly true that I have developed a very negative opinion of Games Workshop over the past 20 years, and many of us have a wealth of argument and evidence to back up why we not only fell out of love with GW but came to loathe them so. For me it was about the pursuit of profit at the expense of the community which got them to the giddy heights they once, and arguably still occupy. I felt like they owed us more than that, for the loyalty we had shown and the money we had continued to pour into the franchise long after its ‘golden age’, much like I felt so let down by StarWars episodes 1-3 (it still hurts damn it). The aggressive way in which they have gone after independent companies who are seen to be impinging on their IP is a very emotive and controversial subject, and regardless of the legalities (which are extremely complicated) was, for me at least, more evidence as to why I did not want to give GW my money any more. It became an ethical issue, but one that merely gave voice to a deep sense of dissatisfaction I’d felt for a long time.

Although I have continued (with various peaks and troughs) to collect Citadel miniatures second hand increasingly looking to the models of the Oldhammer (1987-1992) and early-Middlehammer (?) (1993-98) periods, I stopped buying ‘new’ games workshop models about 18 years ago, just prior to the release of WH40K 3^rd Edition. I didn’t need to wait for GW to break my favourite game officially for me to know that something had changed and the magic just wasn’t there anymore. I can’t point to any particular event or release that turned me off official GW, though the changes they made to WH40K 3^rd Edition certainly meant I was never going to go back, it was more a slow realisation that the models were not as characterful, the new material for my group's favourite version of the game had dried up, and our group had been infected by power gaming that started with ridiculous Space Wolf and Tyranid builds and became the only way to play against some people in the group. It just wasn’t that much fun anymore, and I was getting way more satisfaction out of running my long standing D&D campaign, so that is where I put my efforts. I never stopped playing WH40K completely, but it was no longer the focus of my gaming.

Looking back, part of the issue was that I only ever played WH40K with a relatively small group of friends, and we were not really interested in meeting new people to play. There were lots of people in our wider group of friends who knew the game and collected the models, so there was a decent 'community' for banter, but only a few who lived close enough for us to actually play against each other, a group of about 6 or 7 of us at most. Armies not being easy to transport on the back of a push bike meant that I adopted the approach of collecting multiple armies so that I could host games without the need for people to bring their own models, and I tried to get as many of the COdexes as I could, even if I wasn't planning on collecting that army, particularly trying to get those that no one else in the group had so we had as many options as possible when it came to playing. And we played a fair bit!

Indeed, the main driver for our group was the playing of the game, not necessarily the collecting of models, something I think we actually got spot on, despite getting so much else wrong! In fact games with completely painted forces were definitely the exception not the rule. It was more likely we’d be using stand ins from our existing collections to act as the brand new elite troop choices from the latest Codex, or worse proxy models that were not even Warhammer related – I particularly remember a set of Tetley Tea men made from rubberised plastic making regular appearances as Eldar Wraithguard, as they were about the right amount taller than a regular model to help work out line of sight. 

"See this fire? That's your list. This is what my list does to your list! Bwahahahahahaha!"
I fucking hate Space Wolves.

So, when one of us got carried away with exploiting the loopholes contained within the Space Wolf Codex (a force made almost entirely of Terminator armoured Wolfguard, all carrying heavy weapons anyone?) it started to affect the whole group in an army list building arms race. I would unfortunately have to say that there was one person in particular who was the main culprit, and another who seemed to willingly follow suit while protesting that he had no choice as long as X was playing Y, but nearly everyone ended up going down that route. 

Except me that is. I would still draw up lists that were based around a particular theme, deliberately underpowered lists that made more use of basic troops and armaments, or deliberately small but powerful retinues of special characters but only using those special characters once in a blue moon – NOT EVERY BLOODY TIME WE PLAYED! 

Predictably I lost. A lot. All of the time in fact. I think I have only won about 3 games of WH40K ever. That is about a 3% win ratio. But that has never worried me too much, I don’t mind loosing if everyone has enjoyed the game (good job too wit ha 3% win ratio! - I think it is the GM in me), but there were just too many times when it just didn’t seem fun anymore.

The other tendency that had sprung up was for us to play as big a battle as possible, with no turn limit, no missions, or strategy cards etc. –  it was just an apocalyptic battle where the objective was to wipe out your opponents forces and be the last one standing, and so lists were developed with that objective in mind. Once in a while these games could be really good, but I found them boring, or at least not worth the time they took, when compared to games played to turn limits with missions and victory points. I started to insist on playing turn limited games, preferably with missions though normally we just went for standard VP rules, getting people to agree to use limited troop and equipment types to fit the scenario, or writing up both sets of forces and then dicing to see who took control of which force to ensure fairness, or playing really small ‘skirmish’ type games that were probably not even have been ‘legal’ forces in terms of how you were supposed to build an army list. 

But the weird thing was I was getting lots of my ex-opponents to agree to this, but when they played each other they seemed to revert back to the worst aspects of power gaming. When I would speak to them about this they would often say something like “Oh, I’d be up for that don’t get me wrong, but you’ll never get X to agree!” "That’s funny," I’d say "because X was here last week and we played a game like this and he really enjoyed it but said you’d never go for it."

I started to hear about two of our group playing really great sounding home brew scenarios as well as some of the missions from Codex Tyranids, but when a third member of the group was involved it always went power gamey – yet he was the person that I had just developed a very narrative driven three tiered campaign where we had played linked games of (original rules) Epic, (2E) WH40K, and a version of Necromunda to simulate small street skirmishes (which remains one of my favourite Warhammer 40K experiences of all time and something that I intend both to revsit with him in the coming year and cover in this blog). So what was happening here? Why were we not all able to play the same type of games regardless of pairing of opponents? I think largely, it came down to two things:

1) Trust issues. Our WH40K games often involved springing hideous surprises on your opponent having spent weeks plotting how best to exploit a loop hole in the rules for maximum power gameyness. It was hard for them to trust that the other was not going to revert to previous patterns of behaviour. 

2) At least two of them really do like the ultimate power build style of play. For them part of the ‘fun’ was demonstrating their mastery of the rules and of army builds, and if they could wipe out your army pretty much within the first turn while their own forces remained invulnerable behind whatever defensive rules abuse the were using at the time, then that was all fair game. When they played each other it was their chance to indulge that desire. No problem there, they were both (by this time) consenting adults.  The issue was that they were still unable to talk sensibly about what type of game they wanted with each other. They had picked up on the fact that others in the group were not really enjoying the games anymore, so were happy to play the more narrative driven scenarios with us, and seemed to feel that they had to denounce the other type of game, and the other type of gamer whilst doing so. But that was not the truth, at least not the whole truth and nothing but the truth. They (not so) secretly LIKED the other type of game, and now seemed to be feeling guilty about it, possibly because we'd had to make such a point of not wanting to play the other type of game anymore that they'd now been shamed into publicly denouncing it. And that is no good either.

Think of it like an intimate relationship with a sexual partner. If you are not mature, confident and secure enough with your partner to have a conversation with them about what you need in terms of foreplay (aka - mutually agreed parameters for army list building), and what you do and don’t like, then you are going to continue having your balls squeezed just at the wrong moment, and are never going to get that vinegar stroke you are secretly keen on. You need to be able to tell your partner exactly where to stick it. And how hard. Similarly, if you can’t say to your opponent that what you need out of your gaming time is to have a relatively quick game with a strong narrative, balanced forces (or even unbalanced forces but with a good narrative reason why they are unbalanced), and the possibility of this leading to something more *ahem* long term, you know, like a cheeky little campaign on the side, then you are likely going to continue to have very unsatisfactory sex... I mean gaming sessions!

There needs to be recognition that there is more than one way to play the game and that there is nothing wrong with any of them per se. Like I said, I can enjoy the occasional 10,000 pt per side apocalypse from time to time, and I can appreciate a slogging match between two uber-mensch heroes who can barely be seen beneath their overpowered equipment if that is what my opponent really wants, but you need to be clear with your opponent as to which type of game you are going to have. The problem is when both parties have different expectations and end up trying to play different ‘versions’ of the same game at the same time.

And that is not the fault of GW. 

As so many other Oldhammerer’s have already said elsewhere, we all need to accept our responsibility for playing the type of game that we want to play, and not being beholden to a particular rules set or playing style just because that is the status quo we are seeing in GW shops, or tournaments, or most distressingly of all, amongst our own gaming groups.

Nothing new or revolutionary here in terms of Oldhammer or Middlehammer philosophy, I've read versions of this on a number of other blogs. I just wanted to set out my own position on this and to chart the chequered history of my own gaming group as it struggled to come to terms with life…. I mean gaming!

It is worth noting that this all took place all within the realms of 2nd Edition WH40K, and despite all the issues noted below we still never felt the answer was to loose all the rich background and variety that came with 2nd Edition. Were we wrong?