Denizens of the Dark

So my current foray into the Blackstone Fortress has reached its finale- all my hostiles are painted! I will eventually do the other expansions but for now these are what I wanted to start with.
I've done the bases for the set in a colour code to make it easier to recognise who is where (I'm hoping the Wife and Kids will join in for some adventuring!) - heroes are blue, chaos are red and other hostiles are green

The Fellowship of the Fortress

I've not been idle, promise! I've just been really bad for writing blog posts...
Since last we met I have been working on Blackstone Fortress. Man these miniatures are beautiful! They really spark the imagination.
 I've finished all the heroes from the base game and have started on the villains as well. If I can keep my momentum going I should be finished the main box by the end of the month.

I've also finished off the squad of Fallen that I build over two years ago, using Anvil Industries parts mixed with various GW kits.

Around the world many hobbyist are turning the Coronavirus Pandemic into a positive by getting in more hobbytime. Unfortunately for me it means if anything I get less- both my jobs are both needed and not compatible with hobbytime- supermarket assistant two days a week and full time dad. If anything, my hobbytime might actually go down a little due to having the eldest around stopping the youngest from napping! Guess we'll see, but in the meantime, stay healthy folks and wash those hands!

Word Bearers Finished

I'm at last in a place where I can declare my Word Bearers finished (or as finished as any army ever really is!)


I started this army way back with the release of the Dark Vengeance box. For a long time it remained literally just the Dark Vengeance box plus a couple of extras, but when I won a big batch of old style chaos Marines cheap on eBay I realized it needed to grow!

On to the next project- Blackstone Fortress!

20:20 Hindsight...

 So it's 2020. How by the Emperor did that happen? I remember thinking we'd all be driving flying cars and eating nutrient paste by 2020! I feel robbed!!

I struggled to keep up with this blog last year. There was always something else I needed to do, not enough time to write a post, to upload a picture. I'm not going to pretend that I'll do better this year- I probably won't and I don't want to disappoint myself!

What I did achieve last year was not actually too bad, though well short of what I aimed for...

1. I didn't want to spend more than £50 on miniatures. This I achieved, just, excluding birthday and Christmas money. As always I struggled with being a hobby butterfly and kept wanting to start a new project. I lost track of the number of times I popped on eBay to have a look for "good deals" on models I really don't need... By and large though I achieved this one. 
   
2. I wanted to finish two full armies, which I said would be 1500 points of Deathwatch and at least 2000 points of my Death Guard. Well, the Deathwatch were completed, and in good time. There was something about them that really fired my creative juices. 
   
   After the Deathwatch I lost a bit of hobby mojo and struggled through two Necromunda gangs, and then got pulled into finally finishing my Word Bearers- who are still a work in progress till this day- though they are ALMOST done... 
   
   
   As it stands, only one Death Guard has been painted 😏 I can't say I achieved the two full armies, but the Word Bearers are so so close! 
   
3. I wanted to play at least 12 games..... I played one solitary game of Necromunda....which I lost convincingly.... 
   
4. I wanted to continue introducing my eldest daughter- now 5-  to the hobby. She did a little painting in the first half of the year, and in the second half of the year she and I have played three introductory games using (very!) stripped down rules (oh can I count those as games played for 3???) She's certainly still interested, and is quite regularly asking when we can play again- I really need to find the time! She has also shown an interest in Age of Sigmar, so I have a couple of copies of the first issue Mortal Realms ordered- she likes the "ghosts" so I guess I'm going Stormcast 😂 I count that as achieved!
   

So yeah, not a bad showing- 2.5 out of 4. 

Going into 2020, I'm hoping for much of the same. 

1. Don't spend money on models! I have some Christmas money to spend (most likely going on some Primaris reinforcement for my Dark Angels) but outside that I'm going to try and keep my expenditure under £50 again. 
2. Finish more armies! It would be easy for me to include the Word Bearers on this, but I have literally 2 models to finish it would be a bit disingenuous... So I'm going to say I want to finish(and start) my Death Guard, along with paint my Blackstone Fortress set, my Delaque and at least start on my Primaris.
3. Play games! Seriously, I need to play games. It's not even funny... 
4. Teach my daughter more of the rules, and encourage her to paint her "ghosts" for Age of Sigmar. I'm not going full in with Mortal Realms- I don't want to add MORE projects to the list, but I want to pick up enough issues to let K build herself a small army- I have old Chaos Warriors in the attic I can always use against her. 
5. One thing I did hobbywise in 2019 was take part in the Hohohobbyvices secret santa. For those that don't know, this is a initiative run largely over Instagram where hobbyists all around the world exchange gifts. I had great fun preparing the parcel for my recipient and the present I received was amazing, so this is definitely something I want to do again next year. 
   
6. In my last post I mentioned a general disillusionment with GW. While this has passed to an extent I am still keen to diversify. To that end I invested some birthday money on the Flames of War "Hit the Beach" starter set. It's a great box filled with two almost complete armies, which I will hopefully get started on soon... The Death Guard must come first however!!

Achievable? Definitely! Likely to be achieved? ....well anything is possible I guess.... 

Happy New Year all, sláinte mhath!

Last Year's Hobby Addict Season

This time last year I started this blog with my Hobby Addict To Do List. While I have made some progress I am unfortunately no where near finished, and a couple of new projects have been added. I've also REALLY let the blog slip :/ 

Completed:

• Blood Angels

• Grey Knights

• A super secret project for my regular opponents' birthday- the Heldrake

• Deathwatch- one of my bigger projects for the next year, these guys have languished since the army was released years ago

Artemis, Librarian and Chaplain

Kill Tean

Kill Team

Kill Team

Sniper Kill Team

Heavy Weapons Kill Team

Vanguard

Vanguard

Dreadnaught

Rhino

• Blood Angels

 Terminator Squad x2

Blood Angels Terminator Assault Squad

Terminator Librarian

• Grey Knights

Grey Knight Grand Master, Ancient and Apothecary 

Projects added throughout the year and completed:

• Necromunda Goliaths, Escher and Terrain

Still in Progress/to be started

• Death Guard- my main project, I'm was aiming for 2k points of Nurgle goodness, it's somehow grown to 3k thanks to Conquest deals and eBay!

Contents of Dark Imperium, including a few conversions

2 X Easy Build Plague Marine Boxes (with some conversions)- these are actually built but not painted

Deathshroud- likewise, built but not painted
A metric tonne of Poxwalkers

Blight Lords

Plague Marines

Blight Drones

Rhino

Plague Crawler

Death Guard Characters

• Primaris

Its over a year since Dark Imperium was released and yet I haven't built or painted a single Primaris model- in no small part due to crippling indecision as to how to use them! 

Contents of Dark Imperium + Easy Build Intercessors and Reivers

• Word Bearer Reinforcements - I have a bunch of old Chaos Marines I saved from eBay who are crying out for a repaint to join my Word Bearers and bring them up to a 2000pt list with some extra for variety. 

• Daemons

• Blackstone Fortress

• Delaque

• Gangs of Commoragh

• Terrain.

So yeah I still have a pretty massive to do list! I've started building the Death Guard and Blackstone Fortress miniatures, and have began repainting the Word Bearers from the Black Legion colours the original owner painted, but still have a long way to go. 

To top it all off, I haven't played a single game this year- not even Kill Team or Necromunda. Life just keeps getting in the way unfortunately and my kids and wife always take precedence, naturally. I do have a game tentatively arranged for once the Word Bearers are painted though. 
To try and get through the backlog I've made a few concessions- the Word Bearers will be painted to a very basic tabletop standard- even more so than my usual standard! 
 Part of my lack of progress is due to a bit of a hobby crisis. I find myself looking at GWs latest releases, or rather the price of the releases, and struggling to justify them to myself. Indeed, my eye has been turned by Flames of War- a game I always wanted to play but which has recently released a frankly amazing deal of a starter set. Don't be surprised if you see some Sherman's and Paratroopers on this page at some point in the next year. 

Army Focus: Hive Fleet Nemain

Back in Second Edition just about the only army I didn't immediately want to build when I first saw it was the Tyranids. A lot of the models looked...awkward. There was talk of them being difficult to build, and the official scheme I found to be uninspiring. 

This changed when I returned to the hobby at the start of Fourth after leaving half way through Third. Suddenly the awkward monster army of the 90s was a horde of gribblies that looked awesome, and a new official scheme that was far more uniform and effective to my eye.

 I knew I wanted an army of them, and I knew I wanted it to be melee focused- despite knowing this would make games much trickier! However my focus was elsewhere and I never got around to it. 

 Then I was lucky enough to come into possession of a copy of Space Hulk. I had played the first edition of the game back in the 90s and loved it but had never owned my own version, and when GW rereleased it I was poor/saving for a house and couldn't justify it. So when I had the chance and spare cash it was a no brainer.

 As with many GW products, Space Hulk was the gateway drug... Soon I was buying Deathstorm when it came out and selling the Blood Angels, then using that along with my birthday and Christmas money to buy a Start Collecting Tyranids box, and trawling eBay for deals. Earlier this year I started building the army, 2000 points of melee monsters, going by the name Hive Fleet Nemain.

Nemain in Irish myth is a goddess- part of the more well known Morrigan- who personifies the frenzy, havoc and chaos or war, which seems to suit an army of melee Nids. I haven't decided which Fleet rules I'm going to use for the army, and haven't actually used it yet!

I debated long and hard on what Tyrant variant would lead the fleet. In the end I went with the Swarmlord, in part because he just looks great but also because he has great utility for a force that needs to get across the table quickly. 

When they brought back Screamer Killers for 8th edition I knew I had to build one. The lower talons are made from crushing claw arms with a talon added.

 I love the idea of Lictors but HATE the current model, I actually prefer the old one! I knocked together this one from a Broodlord, some scything talons, a Ymgral Genestealer mouth and a few random spares...

 Nothing like bursting from the ground and bringing some friends with you!

 What would a Genestealer heavy force be without some Broodlords

I have 30 Genestealers in the army, which I can arrange in a variety of ways. 

With the points reductions in Chapter Approved the army is now shy of the 2000 point total I wanted. To rectify that I'm planning to build some Gargoyles at some point to add even more fast moving harassment factors- I'll have most of two boxes worth left after my Furies conversion I have planned, though I'll be short their wings.... 🤔

Forgot to post these...

I've actually been pretty productive lately but I've somehow forgotten to share pictures either here or on my Instagram.
The last five Veterans for my Deathwatch, Artemis, a Librarian, a couple of Dreads and a Rhino join the Watch.
I've not came up with backstories for these folks yet though....

Exorcist Librarian

Artemis

Crimson Fist

Hospitalar

Black Claw 

 Howling Griffon

 Gamma Legionaire.

 The Redemptor is the Easy Build kit (the Conquest one to be precise) but I've added a kitbashed rocketpod and a Onslaught cannon instead of the Heavy Flamer.

 I hadn't realised just how big the Redemptor is compared to the old Dread!

 The Rhino has been converted slightly to have a pair of Storm Bolters mounted in a turret, much less likely to have the bolter wrenched off by some giant Xenos...

And of course another big To Done