Enemy Kabal WIP

Well, despite moving all the way to Tokyo, I'm lucky enough to have a good friend who lives pretty close by and plays 40k, even if he does play he exact same army as I do. What are the chances?

The really cool effect on the canopy is a transfer. The sails on his raiders will be getting something similar, but not identical.

More pictures after the jump!

Talos WIP - 2

Did everyone have a good Christmas? I hope so!
Like many of you I'm sure, this was an opportunity to start (another) army project. Santa-cron was incredibly generous this year, and now I have an entire Necron force to assemble and paint.
Unlike my Dark Eldar, I'll be trying to speed my way through the unliving automatons, with a quick, basic colour scheme. Before I break out the plastic glue, I've been messing about with army lists and plotting the best way to exterminate all life from the galaxy.

The silver faceplate and red colour scheme kinda reminds me of Iron Man's Silver Centurion armour.

Don't worry though, my Dark Eldar are still very much on the paint table. Here's some progress I've been making on my Talos.

Unit Finished - Kabalite Warriors

Not too much to say about these guys. Finished squad of 10 Warriors, with Blaster and Dark Lance. There are a few more pictures of individual warriors from this squad in an old post.

Unit Finished - Reaver Jetbikes

The Reaver Jetbikes were one of the main reasons I fell in love with the new Dark Eldar range. The whole lot is pretty top notch, but I remember, during Games Day UK a few years back, being blown away by the bikes. (more pics after the jump)

Group shot! The large scenic bases will probably screw me over in the future but I think it's worth it.

Airbrushin' and a WIP Talos

Ok, so, not many posts recently, but there has been a lot of hobby progress behind the scenes. I've tidied up and based everything that's painted so far, and the whole thing is looking a bit like a proper army now. Pics incoming soon! I'm quite close to breaking the back of the lot of them as well; one more Warrior squad and a second raider and I'll have a good, fully painted core. Then I can start work on the more interesting units like my Incubi or maybe some Scourges.

Not pictured: 2 hours spent trying to figure out why the airbrush wasn't working properly. Again.

Anyway, this week I had a pretty good hobby day. I went over to my buddy's house, and got busy with his airbrush. The end result, a nice smooth coat of red on 2 raiders and a ravager. I also picked up a Venom and a Razorwing fighter, which unfortunately were not assembled in time to get a similar coat of red.

"Argle Grarble Grarble" - sound tactical advice from the brilliant mind of the Talos

I've been working on a Talos, as well. I'm quite convinced it will get murdered immediately every game, but I don't care. It's a fantastic kit.

'tis the Season

Festive cheer is inescapable, even in the dark corners of the webway.

My Wyches took a little time out from not having their bases painted to help me and Shiverz decorate the Digital Wastrel hobby cave.

Wych WIP

These guys are almost finished, they just need a few extra details.

Just a quick picture today, some work in progress Wyches. While the rest of my army will be sporting blue hair, each Wych squad will have a different hair colour to make them easier to tell apart on the tabletop. These lot are pink, obviously, while squad number 2 will have green hair.

Necron Previews and 6th ed posibilites?

So, the Necrons are officially up for advance order. They looks awesome, and the plastic kits have so many bits. I love bits. Expect Necrons to show up on this blog sooner or later (probably sooner, I'm impatient).

Anyway, I don't normally post rumours and the like, but there are some interesting tit bits to be gleaned from some of the unit descriptions. Check this one out, from the Heavy Destroyer description.

Your Heavy Destroyers can also be used to give you an advantage in the deployment phase. By deploying a Heavy Destroyer first you can wait and see where your opponent puts his own choice before committing a more expensive unit like a Monolith. Again, using a single Heavy Destroyer, you can push your opponent right back into his deployment zone. By deploying your Heavy Destroyer as far forward as possible you will force your opponent to deploy his units 24" back into his own table half, your Heavy destroyer can then turbo boost to a more sensible position on the first turn.

New deployment phase for 6th edition? 6th Edition imminent? Sounds pretty probable to me.

Well, I guess I play Warriors of Chaos now.

 

They just followed me home, I swear.

Dark Eldar Raider finished!

As ever, tidying up and finishing up the details took a lot longer than I thought.
Not as bad to paint as I was expecting, though. Which is good as I have 3 more to do!

I am quite tempted by the new Necrons, though. There's a sentence I never thought I'd type.
Anyway, here are some pictures! Next up...Wyches!

Dark Eldar Raider WIP 2

I'd hoped this would be done by now to be honest, but I was never much good at painting vehicles. All the little bits end up taking longer than I think.
Anyway, here's the Aethersail. Quite pleased with how it came out. I think it'll give it some good visual punch amidst the sea of red that makes up most of my vehicles.

Now to paint the other side.

Dark Eldar Raider WIP

The red needs a little more work, then onto the sail.

40k Musical Cosplay

Chinese Warhammer 40k cosplay? Also a musical? Sisters of Battle, a working chainsword, and a singing Inquisitor?
I'll just leave these here.

Favourite miniature of all time?

I still keep in contact with my club back home, and there's a topic in the forums entitled "What is your all time favourite miniature and why?"
Well, I can never resist a good topic like that so I put my thinking hat on. How to pick? So many awesome figures.

I gave this some serious thought and managed to narrow it down to 3. That's the best I can do!
First up is...

Favourite Fantasy Figure

Wood Elf Waywatcher Lord

This guy just oozes badass-ness. I still maintain the Wood Elves have some of the coolest character figures in the game. I've got 500 points of them that have been sitting around waiting for me to give them some paint for years, but I have yet to rise to the challenge. I've always loved the traditional Elf-with-bow archetype, and Fantasy Wood Elves pull this off nicely. Look at that figure. He's just shot you through the eye from 8 miles away, and before you can hit the floor he's going to do the same to all your friends. All because you looked at that tree funnily.

Favourite 40k Figure
This was a tough one! Some close calls here, so honourable mention goes to Boss Snikrot and the Harlequin Death Jester but my pick is going with a newer figure. A really new one!

Dark Eldar Scourges

These pictures from GW look cool, but honestly don't do them justice. They are such 3 dimensional figures, full of movement and with great presence due to the impressive wings. Plus they're a plastic kit, so you've got pose-ability, options, and a sense of uniqueness to each one. Easy to work with and convert as well. Aside from all that, they just look awesome. They make Swooping Hawks cry themselves to sleep at night because they'll never be this stylish.

Favourite Classic Figure or Best Over All
You wanted some nostalgia, here it is.

Space Ork Freebootaz. Not my own figures by the way, just something I found on google. Click to go to the source.

Specifically the Kaptin on the right, but the Cybork on the left is pretty cool too. Full of first edition flavour, this guy is part of what helped me fall in love with 40k in the first place. He's an Ork who's dressed as a pirate captain, has a massive power klaw and a gun made up of several smaller guns bolted together. Oh, and he's smoking a cigar. What more do you want?

Haemonculi - not enough arms

I've posted about my plastic Haemonculi before. I was fairly content to leave them as they were. Not terribly exciting, but they would do the job. I've not been using them in my lists, but figure I might in the future so it was nice to have a few available.

The Talos kit is pretty fantastic. I've been told a lot of the parts are compatible with the Grotesques, but what got me excited were the small arms and other little bits that were on the frames. You can't really see it on GW's pictures, because all the little arms are tucked away under the Talos.

I took these parts and started glueing. It's a not a major difference from how she looked before, but the change in the miniature's profile really makes the mad surgeon stand out, I think.

She's also got me much more excited to paint her. Amazing what a difference a couple of extra arms can make!

First game in Japan; Javier's Blood Angels

On Saturday I met up with Javier at the Jinbouchou store for my first game of 40k since landing in Japan.
He arrived with his beautifully painted Blood Angel army, putting my mostly unpainted Dark Eldar to shame. I got some shots of his force, because you all crave as many pictures as possible. I know I do!

Games Workshop Japan - Part Two

Gratuitous Grey Knight shot to lure people in!

As promised, here's part two. Pretty much just an image dump this time of stuff from the Jinboucho store.

Games Workshop Japan- Jinbōchō, Tokyo

Earlier this week I visited my new local GW store. It's one of several around Tokyo, and I believe it's the biggest.
Finding the place was a little daunting the first time. Tokyo can be a bit difficult to navigate at times (They have no street signs, I can't read Japanese yet and don't have access to anything like google maps on the move anymore), so I thought I'd write up a simple guide to getting to the store for any western gamers who are visiting Japan and want to roll some dice.

GW Jinbōchō

Firstly, you want to get yourself to the Jinboucho station. There are a few ways to do this, the easiest being from Shibuya station. It's worth noting that the Jinboucho stop isn't actually on the JR line. While you can still use your rail card to get there, this means the platform isn't grouped with all the other JR line platforms, so that's something to watch out for. The line you want is called the Hanzomon line, and is colour coded purple. If you're in Shibuya near the Hachiko exit you should be able to spot the signs for it. It's a few stops away and cost me about ¥150. I believe you can also get to Jinboucho from Shinjuku, but I came at it from Shibuya.

Who says the Japanese subway is complicated?

Anyway, somehow you make it to Jinboucho. You want to take exit A5. There will be a map somewhere on the platform showing you which way to go to get out of exit A5. Once you're out on the street, there should be large crossing directly to your right, and a family mart over the road from you.

The crossing

The family Mart

Cross the road towards the family mart, turn left, and GW should be a few paces in front of you. In fact you should be able to spot it from the subway exit.

The map showing the exit you should come out on. Note all the other exits on the map, so if you come out a different one you should be able to find your way there. The store is basically under the S 06 green circle on the map.

I'll leave you with a couple of shots of the inside of the store. If you're not planning on visiting Tokyo any time soon this is probably a bit of a useless post, but don't worry! I'll update part two of my trip soon, which will be all the figures from the store. Lots to look at!

Look what I found...

I know a lot of you out there have custom dice. I'm no exception.
I mean, what's cooler than a D6 with your army's logo on it?
Today in Shinjuku's Yellow Submarine store, I found the answer.

Yeah, that's right. Dinosaur Dice!


Also Lobster Dice, because lobsters are cool too

Plastic Haemonculi

Quick one today, just showing my Haemonculi. The spare torsos are fairly easy to source (Raver jetbikes come with a spare front and wyches come with a spare back). They were glued to some sprue for the legs, and then the robes were simple quick and dirty Greenstuff.

Dark Eldar weapons: Getting the most Blaster for your buck

I'm not the foremost expert on Dark Eldar tactics, but it's a pretty basic fact that the more blasters in your force, the better. However, there is only one in each box of warriors.
Here's how to make more with a little creative thinking.


The first of my Trueborn is armed with a basic blaster. The keen eyed amongst you may observe his lack of head. Do not worry, the head will be attached before he takes to the battlefield.


The second blaster is made from a Shredder (who uses those anyway, right?), with the barrel cut off and replaced. The replacement here comes from the reaver jetbike sprue, but you could just as easily use a Blast Pistol.


Lastly we have a stripped down Dark Lance. Simply trim the long barrel off! It looks a little heftier than the usual Blaster, but it's still about the right shape and size to fit in nicely.

Plastic Incubi

Hey guys!
I've been pretty busy lately, as, I'm moving in a few days. Going overseas to Japan! I've set up a second blog which will detail my adventures. Digital Wastrel will stay focussed on hobby type stuff. I mentioned before, but I shall be bringing my Dark Eldar with me. While i'm not sure how much gaming I'll get to do out there, hopefully I'll be more focussed and actually make some progress on painting. More updates than usual? Stay tuned to find out...

Anyway, before packing them away I sat down and finished up all the half finished units that had been cluttering up my desk. First of these was my Incubi. I came up with this prototype ages ago (and not even on my own blog apparently!), but finally gathered the bits to make an entire unit. I ended up going with Hellion weapons. With both ends painted up as power weapons the unit should stand out from my other warriors nicely.



Not sure how I'll be running these guys, but a unit of 6 should be plenty, especially as they'll be hanging with my Archon. Looking forward to getting them all painted! I went with fairly subdued poses which I think works better for the whole cold and brooding menace thing they have going on (plus I didn't have any Wych legs spare). The guy at the top of the post is my Klaivex. His pose took me a while to get looking right (considering it wasn't very complicated), but I quite like the way he turned out. My favourite in the unit though is below.




I've got a couple more blog posts written up, so expect more over the weekend!

New blog design!

A certain Sandwich lover was messing about on photoshop yesterday. Seeing as my plan of "I'll make myself a blog banner eventually" had yet to produce any results, she did a few designs for me. One for each of my armies...well, almost! Much fancier than before. Now I just need to keep the content coming.

1500 Tau and moving away

Note: My own Tau are half painted by my wonderful Girlfriend, half proxied miniatures, and entirely unphotographed. Instead, I shall pepper this post with images of my good friend OtherRob's Tau, from the Cheltenham Warchiefs gaming club.

It's been a while!


I have been pretty busy with an upcoming massive move and life-change (watch this space for more info) which has rendered my usual intermittent hobby output even less...mittent. Lots of games played, but I've not been painting or buying much. The move is possibly short term (a few months) but it may well end up being a full year. It's also overseas. Obviously, this means my tonnes of miniatures won't all be able to come with me. I decided early on that I'd take a single army with me, and I've been working over the choices in my head for a while now (yes, I think about important things like this). I think I've settled on taking my Dark Eldar. They're plastic (thus, light), mostly unpainted (so even if I don't get much gaming done I can channel my hobby energy into painting them), and they also tick the all important "evil pointy eared space elf" box.

I've been cycling through all of my various armies, trying to get some games in with each of them before I depart. This is the first of a possible series where I talk a little about each of my most common lists.



Today, my experiments with the Tau!
Tau were, for me, an early idea for an army to take with me. They're a very different play style to my usual (I normally live for the assault phase), but wrecking faces with Rail Guns is certainly awesome. In the end I decided against taking the army beyond my experiments because I'd still have so much to buy. If the rumours are true about them getting a new book sooner rather than later are true though, I may have to join the greater good permanently!



Here's my 1500 list.

HQ:
Shas'el - Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker


Elites:
2x Crisis Battlesuits, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker

2x Crisis Battlesuits, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker

2x Crisis Battlesuits, Twin Linked Missile Pod, Target Lock (didn't have enough points to make them all Fireknife load out)

Troops:

6x Fire Warriors (these guys steal the pathfinder's fish)

6x Fire Warriors, Devilfish with Disruption Pod

10 Kroot

10 Kroot

Fast:
8 Pathfinders, Devilfish with Disruption Pod

Heavy:

Hammerhead with Rail Gun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod and Target Lock

Hammerhead with Rail Gun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod and Target Lock

2x Broadsides, Advanced Stabilization System, Team Leader with Hard Wired Target Lock, Hard Wired Drone Controller, 2x Shield Drones

1497 points total.



Pretty simple stuff.
So far my Pathfinders have consistently been shot and immediately broken, but I think their markerlights are too useful not to have them in the list.
Kroot are a useful distraction/sacrifice unit, and I love them. Bigger squads would be nice, but I can't afford them.
It might be worth dropping the SMS on the hammerheads and using the points for something else.

Anyway, that's my take on the Tau! Kind of an epic and rambling post.

From the shelf...converted assault marines

So, I'm having a clear out of some of my old mans. These guys are off to ebay (shameless plug, sorry) to hopefully find a new home, so why not commemorate them on my blog while I'm at it?



I made these guys back in 4th edition. I figured it would be cool if all my guys had tall shields and chainspears. Back then I just used them as BP/CCW guys, but now I guess they could be run as vets with storm shields and relic blades.

The remainder of this tiny army got drafted in to my Iron Hands, but these guys have been sat on a shelf for years now. Hence the dust.

Suddenly...Tau!

Yeah, I know. Tau?
Anyway, I've been inspired by some wonderful converted battlesuits from around the net, and after proxying a tau list on monday I decided to have a go and make some of my own.
The conversion is essentially copied outright from a dude online named Tael. His site is here, and this is his thread on Advanced Tau Tactica. Both are a few years old so you might have run across them before, but very much worth a look.

Anyway, this is my effort. A WIP Broadside.

Vindicare Assassin

More from the Imperium. This time it's a Vindicare Assassin. Pew pew! Headshot.