Rest In Peace Big Guy

It`s a very sad day here, and I`m struggling with all kinds of feelings of rage, sadness, feeling helpless...

This morning, Nemesis called me and said I had to sit down.  I was nowhere as prepared for what he had to say next.

Björn, one of our "infamous" Far Side gang, had passed on.  While the reasons are not for sharing, it is needless to say that this was a guttpunch of the highest caliber.  He was a year my younger, and leaves behind a wife and two sons.

Björn was one of those people you immediately took a liking to.  Rough around the edges, a true hulk of a posture, only reinforced by his Viking like beard and baldshaven head, he was one of those people you could always count on.  If he said he would do something, he did.

Always the first to help, and the last one to close the bar because just in case something heavy needed moving for the barstaff, he had a heart of gold.  A soldier, in the truest sense of the word, he was that reliable backbone in any group or club that you can have.

And now... he is gone.  Of to that far side of the galaxy.  Of to Valhalla.

Or as he liked to quote on Facebook:

Hear! Sons of Kahless.
The blood of battle washes clean.
The warrior brave and true.
We fight, we love, and then we kill.
Our lives burn short and bright.
Then we die with honor and join our fathers
in the Black Fleet where we battle forever,
battling on through the Eternal Fight

Take care Big Guy, I`ll miss ya...

What I painted in october 2017

Another month has passed by (okay, technically one more day, but I`m out for Halloween tomorrow), and I did some serious assault on lead mountain.

Well, a bit of forced painting was included, as I both needed to complete some more Dux for games, as well as Emperor's Children.

And I function best under deadline pressure...

Dark Ages

Perhaps the brunt in volume this month have been figures for use in the Dux campaign.  Not only did I need to complete a heap for a game in the beginning of the month, I opted to start preparing "actual" romano-british for the campaign as well.

Age of Sigmar

For the fantasy side of gaming, some units where completed as well.  For the Empire, these consisted of both a regiment of Handgunners, and an expansion for the Militia force

While for Slaanesh, I painted up Sigvald as a lord, an old Black Tree giant for a spawn and a unit of deamonnetes (which I can also use in 40k)

Emperor's Children

They got the big stuff, as the Cultist unit got expanded to 20 strong, a small Havoc and a small marine squad joined the ranks and they got some big armoured support in the form of a Helbrute and a Predator... all units that had to be on the table a fortnight ago.  I`ll sleep when I`m dead I guess...

Other Things

The final thing I painted was a single Word Bearers marine, to serve as the "test colour base" for how that force will be tackled, prbably come 2018...

So all in all, a very impressive month for the tally, as I painted no less then,and all 28mm and 30mm figures this month round, 80 models.

Turn: Washington's Spies season 4

The fourth and final season of the AMC hit series, this year is all about knotting up loose ends.

Against a war of independance, the spy ring struggles on to free their country from the British.

Central this year is vengeance.  Washington versus Arnold.  Hewlett and Woodhall versus Simcoe.  Simcoe versus peace... the tables turn in every direction in a year filled with treason and plot.

As Judge Woodhall finally helps out his son Abraham, he pays the ultimate price.  This causes Abraham to leave Setauket and join the army camp of Washington where he is swiftly recruted to infiltrate the british force with the help of a returned Hewlett.  In a plot to capture the traitor Benedict Arnold, who himself keeps looking for recognition, they swear a vow to kill Simcoe.

However, as the war steps up and the French (finally) intervene, things don`t go as planned, and afterwards the spy ring members, unsung heroes whose names could never be revealed, have to cope with normal life once again... and I cried like a child at the final 5 lines of the series.

Another good season, and even though it moved more from the spy versus spy game to a spy influence the war game this year, it was a strong ending to a very lovely series indeed.

And Simcoe...

Word Bearers colour test

Now that my Emperor's Children are well underway, it`s time to try colours in order to start, well, the next Chaos Legion. 

And that will be the guys that actually started the whole Horus Heresy, Lorgar's Word Bearers legion.

While in the end I want to be able to choose from four Astartes Heretics forces (apart from the Emperor's Children and the Word Bearers, there will also be the Alpha Legion and the Night Lords in my cabinets), these will be smaller forces then my main army.

And the Word Bearers, relying heavily on the demonic, also give me the perfect excuse to paint up some Tzeentch horrors over time...

For the colours I used, just have a look at the small video I uploaded above :-)

Expanding the Hochland Militia

While I won`t have much painting time the coming week, I managed to squeeze in a couple of hours past night with the hour changing and such.

As a result, I finished the next batch of 10 Militia for the Empire, bringing the unit from 10 to 20 soldiers strong.

Painted in the style of the first 10, they hint at the Hochland colours with green pants and red shirts, while wearing all sorts of non-uniformed clothing like longcoats.

Armed with a variety of weapons, the militia are actually rather handy and versatile troops in the Age of Sigmar game, providing both limited ranged support as well as being not totally hopeless up close... as far as a normal human soldier goes in a world filled with pointy eared swordmasters, greenskinned brutes and magically mutated monstrosities.

Next for the Empire will be the first batch of mounted forces to start adding punch to the force now...

The Dark Tower

Long awaited, the adaption of the highly popular Stephen King books hit the cinema this year.

And with the combined talent of Matthew McConaughey as Walter and Idris Elba as Roland, what could go wrong?

Well... stuff...

Intended as an intro to launch the franchise, of which a series is said to be in the works, The Dark Tower brings us into the story when a boy, Jake, dreams of a machine assaulting a large, well, dark tower.  This construction stands at the center of realities, and the evil sorcerer Walter wants to tear it down and start the apocalypse.

He has defeated a mythical order of warriors called Gunslingers, of which Roland is the last survivor, and he needs Jake who has such a strong "Shine" that he could bring the tower down by his own.  Jake travels to Mid World to look for the source of his dreams, and comes in touch with Roland. 
Walter on the other hand travels to our world to find Jake and capture him, even killing his parents in the process.  While he manages to catch the boy, this leads to a confrontation between him and Roland.

Well, the movie is from a visual aspect more then okay, the end fight is bonkers, and McConaughey and Elba are holding the movie up.  But that`s the problem, because the story in itself is brought rather shallow, as it is a sort of canonical sequel to the 8 part book series.  And it draws on elements from all eight of them, which isn`t handy if you haven`t read the books.

As such, it feels a bit of a "light" epilogue, and as it`s a different story you can`t say the book was better, though they definitly are, being far more in depth and "taking along" then this, in all honesty, rather dull movie.  The only "good" moment for me was when Elba was brought to a hospital in our world...

A missed chance for sure... so let`s hope the series when it materializes will be stronger.

The Empire marches to war once more

Well, that`s another "completed" on the goals list then.

As I had managed a 1000 points "Order" force before, the General`s Handbook broke my army into two pieces.

And there is a campaign coming up in 2018, starting in all probability in januari over at TSA.  Now, I know I`ll be up against some rather competitive players, which isn`t meant in a bad way, but who will look more to a good list then a "rabbled together" one as I tend to build. 

But I dwindle, the fact is I chose to field my beloved Empire, and for it's core force of 1000 points (including the Warscroll from the appendix book, downloadable from the Games Workshop website) I now reached the goal. 

The force is made up of nothing special, with almost every troop a pure State Troop unit.  Surely they benefitted somewhat from the Handbook, in that troops gotten cheaper in points.  But this all means that now the base force consists of no less then 81 models, so that should be a nice solid base to now start expanding on.

This will be mostly by adding more regular troops, and the slow integration of shock troops and artillery.  At first I aimed to play Slaanesh at next year's mega battle at TSA, but it might perfectly be I`ll do it with my Empire instead as they continue to grow in number.

But now, time to start some other sideprojects... more on that a bit later today.

TSA Clubevening 27th of October 2017

Another friday, another evening of games and pleasure at the Tin Soldiers clubhouse!

And a bit of a special thingie this time, as we have a sort of "exclusive" to share.

Arno, aka Captain Tweetie on our clubboard forum, the resident Boardgame guru was presenting a very first prototype version of a new boardgame, which hopefully will be released in about a years time from now.

This wasn`t the only boardgames to grace the clubhouse this evening though.

The Heroquest rpg group also got together again.

As where the counter wargamers, progressing further in their immense game.

The TSA homebrewn rules of Rudi where played again as well as North faced off the South once again on the field of battle.

AMSS, a miniature club that gathers regularly on the club, had their painting evening as well, and Ramir was putting down some gorgeous brushstrokes.

In the meantime, colonial forces prepared to invade the zulu lands.

More homemade rules with this micro-armour battle raging.

The Colonials try to throw of the joke of the British.

Space Wolves face down the Death Guard.

There was also a game of Dux for our campaign going, but shame on me, I forgot to snap a picture of this...

And now... it`s time for Crisis, taking place next saturday!  So if you are present, feel free to drop by and come say hello, just ask after "Tomsche" and I`m pretty sure you`ll get pointed in the right direction... basically, where the noise comes from.

A full report will of course be brought to you on the sunday!

I won: Greebo Games Fang 'n Hood

A bit of a suprise as I was tagged on Facebook a day or two ago.

Greebo Games launched a Kickstarter for their Fang 'n Hood model, which is an epic take on Little Red Riding Hood fighting the Big Bad Wolf.

This will be a limited edition model, down to 500 copies, and through their page, you could try and guess the price the model would cost when going onto Kickstarter.  From those giving the correct price (which is 45 euro btw), a winner would be drawn.

And that turned out to be me.

I`m really happy for this one, it`s a great looking sculpts and will be one of those figures you paint to display in your cabinets instead of risking damaging it on the gaming table in all probability.  The Kickstarter is set to ship in February 2018, so I estimate my figure will be arriving then as well.

I`m really excited to get my hands on this one!