What I Painted in January 2019

Well, Lord of the Rings for the AHPC 9 of course, beginning 2019 as we ended 2018.

But this month, I made some nice progress on finished units, due to two bonus rounds taking place.

The first was Reconnaissance, for which I completed Faramir and 4 of his Rangers.

The second bonus round was Sports, to which end I gave a nice olympic torch twist for the round... and completed 15 Uruk Hai as a result.

But that wasn't all I finished this month, as I managed to actually get a regular entry up in the form of this force of Mordor, containing Mordor Orcs, two of the Nazgul and a big juicy Troll.

I also managed to get Treebeard done, and add some small forests made out of heavily discounted christmas ornaments.

So that brings this month to a lovely 41 models finished, not to bad a start for the new year!

Onwards to February, and more AHPC goodness!

One Punch Man

Okay, I`m late to the party, I admit...

Between when I started watching this series, and finally finished it last week, about 1.5 years have passed.  For no other reason then just nt coming around to finish these 3 final episodes.

Not because I didn`t like the series, au contraire, I love this series as it's great fun, but just, well, forgetting to.

So Saitama... a cult figure in the meantime, and a second season underway.  He was a normal employee suddenly attacked by a monster, and he defeated it at great effort.  He then decided to become a hero by training hard, and became SO strong that he defeats opponents with a single punch.

This results in Genos, a cyborg, joining him to learn how to become so powerful, as Saitama defeats monster after monster, albeit reluctantly as he looks for a fair fight.  Together with genos he enregisters with the Superhero hq... and is ranked in the lowest class as he flunks tests on purpose.  because he isn`t in it for the fame or the responsibility, he has become a hero because he has fun in it...

This is a good laugh show, 12 episodes long, and together with Hero Academia is Japans answer to the superhero craze of the past years... and I enjoy both series far more then Iron Fist...

Codex Drukhari

The latest 8th edition codexI've read front to back, though I must admit this is not one of my armies, but actually Noshi's force in the making.

One always says one picks an army to go with one's character traits... so now you know why I always sleep with one eye open xD

The Drukhari are an ancient and technologically advanced race that feeds on the suffering of others.  Their ancestors ruled the stars long before mankind first ventured outward from Terra, and over long millenia the ennui of their vast lifespans led them to ever greater acts of depravity and violence.  Now, from the nightmare city of Commaragh nestled in the black heart of the webway, the Drukhari launch their raids on the worlds of realspace, slaughtering to sustain their withered souls and gathering up slaves to take back to their morbid torture chambers...

The Drukhari are not a force for the faint hearted, preferring mobility and alpha strikes over the long war protected by heavy armour and vehicles.  They are a force build around various skirmish units, working together in union and striking where they want to.  Which also makes them very fragile in protracted fights...

The book is made up as usual with the codexes, starting with the fluff on their genesis and their current state in the changed 40k universe.

Moving onwards, we get to have a look at all the various factions and the cults that make up the Dark Eldar society, before going in the fluff on a unit by unit basis on how they fight and came to be.

Next we have the section of the painted miniatures, though I must say the Games Workshop colourscheme doesn't do the sculpts justive in all honesty.  They are painted just too pale for my taste, giving a strangely distorted look to the models.

The army list section is next, following the usual pattern: unit datasheets, then the weapon armoury.

Stratagems, and they include so,e really nasty ones, and traits for both warlords AND your kabals, cults and the likes are then listed up.  They have some pretty nasty gear and skills in there, and the fact a Drukhari army gets dirtier with additional, CUMULATIVE skills as turns progress make them a nasty opponent you want to hit as soon as possible.

A very different army from most out there, these guys will require a certain level of skill to manouvre over the tabletop, but you won't be out of the ballpark the moment they do choose to strike with all their might, especcially if they manage to preserve their better units in the first turns and are all fresh and ready to pounce...

Never is too long a word for me...

In this entry, I've painted up that lovely ent model from Games Workshop of Treebeard.

Though I went on to remove Merry and Pippin from him, in order to be able to use him if needed as a regular Ent as well in my games.

Old as the Fangorn forest, Treebeard is one of the mythical Shepherds of the Forest, a race slowly dwindling, but when aroused a force to be reckoned with.  As Saruman and Isengard learn when the Ents march one last time.

The model is the old GW metal one, painted using a combination of Strong Tone by Army Painter and drybrushing with a variety of browns and greys.

To accompany him, I also painted up two small forests, based on old christmas cd's.  The pinetrees are from that wonderful period that is happening right now: christmas decorations being liquidated in the various decoration pop-up stores for three times nothing.

I have no idea on how many points to calculate for the entry though, it's the first time I entered scenery in the challenge, and the Ent itself is about the weight and volume of the older, smaller GW dreadnoughts, so I'm afraid I'll have to look at my 'assigned minion' Evan for the points on this one *puppy eyes*.

Bumbararum!

Haul Report 166

And here we are for another look at all the glorious loot I obtained the past week!

Which is... absolutely nothing.

But heck, enjoy this piece of cosplay of your Lord and Saviour Seiya instead.

Until next week!

On the Painting Desk 79

More progress as we thrundle onwards in the AHPC edition 9.

And like the past month, it has been all about Tolkien's Middle-Earth as such.

Now, with one third of the challenge gone by, I`m nicely on schedule as I near the halfway points mark of my goal, go me!

Unboxing The Fellowship

It`s been a while, but it`s time for a new unboxing video, and this time it`s the plastic version of the Fellowship.

Bought specifically for the AHPC's final bonus round, let`s have a look at the most iconic band of adventurers in fantasy literature.

They are worth their money if you ask me!

Seventh Son

Our latest Netflix endeavour, Seventh Son is a 2014 fantasy movie with actually quit a cast...

Jeff Bridges, Julianne Moore, Alicia Vikander... add to that 5 minutes of "Jon Snow" so you can add him on the movie poster and you can have a "not crappy, unknown fantasy movie".

Based on the novel The Spook's Apprentice by Joseph Delaney, it follows Thomas Ward as he is enlisted by Gregory to become a witch hunter.  Being the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and son of a witch to boot, he also bears a mighty talisman called the Umbran stone.

When Mother Malik, queen of the witches, escapes her prison, it comes to Gregory and Thomas to set out and try to destroy her.  To that end, Gregory first starts training Thomas in the way of a Spook, how a hunter of the paranormal is called.  But he meets and falls in love with a witch called Alice.  The niece of mother Malik, she has been sent out to spy on the spooks as they progress.

Alice will betray Thomas and steal the stone, but doubts her aunt more and more and tries to convince her mother to revolt against Mother Malkin.  When our heroes gather for the final battle against darkness (with mind you, a bit of an anti-climatic defeat of Malkin), she turns back to their side and together they are victorious, overthrowing evil and Thomas becoming the new "last of the Falcons", the order of the spooks.

It was an entertaining, though not the most fantastically made ever movie in my opinion.  But for a relaxing evening and the "urge" to watch something that might actually inspire your gaming scenarios, this isn`t to bad at all a movie, and the special effects are actually well done.  While the movie does give the vibe of "so much more could have been achieved", the fact it isn`t well known at all "warns" you of this form of underperformance after all.  It`s NOT a hidden and overseen gem!

So if you have nothing to do and just want to watch an easy on the mind flick, this is a decent choice.

Chapter Approved 2018 Edition

A new year, a new Chapter Approved book for Warhammer 40k... and a new book to haul along. 

But heck, that's a personal gripe, so let's see what it brings... and it is including a list highly anticipated by the 40k community.

The book starts with an introduction and an explanation of ways to play 40k, the basic stuff really, but I will be going over the parts seperatly as such due to this.

Open Play

The way to play 40k on a basic bring along and plunk down manner, these often have the fun rules like last years build your own Land Raider.  And this year, it continues in that manner.

First off there are rules for building your Looted Wagons again as in the old days, so Orc players can rejoice.  The other entry is one to make your own Custom characters, so it's understandable that this is in this section to prevent matched play abuse.

Narrative Play

The story driven way of playing 40k, this is the way to go for those wanting to see their armies evolve and their tales made on the tabletop.

The first set of new rules for this are Battle Honours, rules to form units over the course of your battles into reknowned regiments.

The big entry in this section though is Cities of Death, which brings back cityfight rules with it's own Stratagems and missions to play .

Matched Play

The biggest section this year is the Matched Play one, not only with additions and corrections, but features three army lists as well.

But first we get a set of new missions for your glorious battles to be fought out.

The next section brings back another thing of old, namely terrain special rules for all the sets (well, most of them at least) of terrain GW lately released.

And then we come to the big one: the beta version of Codex Adepta Sororitas aka the Sisters of Battle.  It's the try out version before their new range release somewhere this year with new models, and allows you to field your force with new stratagems, relics, all the units etc etc... though Saint Celestine is way to cheap...

The next army list is the polished up version of the Renegade Knights, and one handy for me, while the third army list is The Eight, the Tau battlesuit force of commander Farsight.

The Final part contains the updated points values and corrected datasheets for matched play, so nothing new there...

It's not a bad book at all, and it has gotten me think about some ideas for future games, especially on the Open Play parts...

Quickly, take him down!

The Sports bonus round was something I initially planned to skip, as it wouldn't fit in my Lord of the Rings theme.

But then I remembred that hilarious // cringeworthy moment from the Two Towers movie.

When the Uruk Hai prepare to blow up the Deeping Wall, the lines open and under loud cheering a berserker with torch runs up.  In a style like the Olympic Torchbearer (is there a bigger symbolism of sport?) he runs into the powder and explodes the wall.

So to that end, I indeed painted up the figures for just this moment: the berserker and some Uruk Hai cheering him on his way as he breaks ranks...

So for this bonus round entry, I finished as such 15 infantry models, good for 75 points to the total...

Build me an army worthy of Mordor

The newest entry for this years challenge, in which I'm trying to paint up enough forces to corrupt both the girlfriend and the Nemesis to take the field in games of Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game gaming.

Which is more my goal and focus this year.

To that end, I will be needing painted forces for both sides, and this is a good excuse to paint a bit of everything along the range from Games Workshop.

For this entry, I went for the forces of Mordor, and their basic troops as such as a result.  The lowly orc is a poor combatant, but he comes with a lot of his friends to the field.

The entry consists of 15 basic Mordor orcs, armed with a variety of bows, spears and hand weapons.

Supporting them is an old metal Mordor Troll, a fearsome foe in the game, as well as a big, heavy dreadnought sized model,bound to give the heroes of good a rough day as it sweeps through the lines.

All overseen, or driven forth if you might say, by two of the Nine...

So that makes this entry 16 infantry models of 28mm infantry strong, the large troll which I guess yields 10 points, and a 28mm cavalry model, good for 100 points to the tally :-)