Clearing Out My 40K Cabinet

As you might've guessed from the conclusion of the battle report earlier in the week, I've decided to sell off a good chunk of my 40K collection. This post serves as a shameless plug for the items that I'm selling. Feel free to ignore it!

Sector Mechanicus Scenery
I've got quite a collection of this that I bought with the intention of making a Necromunda table. Sadly the Necromunda campaign never got off the ground so that will all be going up soon. This kit was the only bit still sealed though. It's technically Imperial Knights scenery since it has rules in their codex.

Sacristan Forgeshrine: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496751347

Space Wolves Kits
Like the Ork stuff below, this is mostly extra kits I acquired to expand my SW force around the time of 8th.

Wolf Guard Terminators: https://ebay.co.uk/itm/264496741647

Wolf Pack (Grey Hunters/Blood Claws/Wolf Guard): https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496743128

Thunderwolf Cavalry: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496739616

Ork Kits
This stuff comes for various battleforces, boxed sets, etc. The intention was to expand my Ork army but as you can see, the kits never made it off the sprues.

Nobz: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496747904

Two Trukks: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496736053

T'au  Empire Accessories
I decided to keep the Tidewall separate from the army below as it isn't painted. I've also put the codex and cards in a separate auction because whomever buys the army may already have them. There's also an used Start Collecting set here.

T'au Codex and Datacards: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496784589

Start Collecting T'au Empire: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496723361

T'au Tidewall Scenery: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496731464

T'au Empire Army
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264496778864

Finally, last but not least to go will be my T'au army. They're the only army that hasn't even seen the tabletop in 8th. There's about 3,500pts here and the vast majority of it is painted to a pretty good tabletop standard. This is the hardest thing for me to sell because I've had a lot of fun using this army over the years. They were the first xenos army I collected after returning to 40K (second only to the Space Wolves). I've always lamented not buying an airbrush before starting this army as when I've used it on some of the later additions to the army e.g. the second Sky Ray/Hammerhead, it's saved a huge amount of time.

The Winter Scenery Project (Part 4 of Many) - Snowy Imperial Bastions and Progress Update

There's probably going to be a delay to the scenery project for a while since I've got to get my Blog Wars army sorted as a priority. Still, I've managed to add another couple of pieces to the completed pile. All of this stuff needs some protective varnish but I'm putting that off as I'm convinced it's going to ruin it all! I've got a can of Purity Seal waiting though and I'll test it on one of the ruins first to make sure it doesn't do anything drastic. If all else fails I'll pick up some matt varnish that can go through my airbrush. Anyway, onto the bastions:

I started off with a basecoat of Catachan Green/Castellan Green through the airbrush.

I then drybrushed some Camo Green over the details followed by some Leadbelcher.

I painted in some details like the aquila around the door in Ceramite White and the door itself in Mephiston Red with Leadbelcher metalwork. I also painted the heavy bolters with Abaddon Black and more Leadbelcher (for the skulls above the bolters too). Finally I painting the floor on the battlements with Leadbelcher before applying a wash of Nuln Oil to all the metal work and some Agrax Earthshade to dirty up the floor a bit.

Now it was time to make them look more wintry. I hit the bottom of the buildings with a drybrush and successive layers of The Fang, Fenrisian Grey and finally Ceramite White. I also hit the top surfaces of everything with Ceramite White as this is where the snow will go.

You can see here that I've focussed the white drybrushing around the edges where the snow will go and you can see the muddy look the Agrax Earthshade has given the top. I deliberately applied in in a messy fashion to make it look, well, messy.

Here are the final shots of the Bastions with snow added. There isn't really anywhere to put any grass tufts so none of those this time around. I had thought about basing them but if I ever want to use them in a tournament that might cause issues. I may change my mind at some point but it won't be a big deal to paint a base up.

Finally, I thought I'd take some shots of my current stash of winter scenery on the mat. I'm extremely happy with what I've done so far. It's not perfect of course but it's a huge improvement on the old grey or black scenery we were using before. I'm considering applying a watered down coat of Drakenhof Nightshade wash to the snow flock to make it more like the colour of the mat but I'll need to do this on some test pieces to make sure it isn't too detrimental.

As I say, I'm now going to be focussing on my Blog Wars army but I'll probably do a couple of scenery pieces here and there to break up the monotony. I'm particularly keen to make some rocky outcrops and/or large ice crystals. I'd also like to keep my Citadel Woods in their current colour scheme to avoid the time I put into them being a waste. That means I need some other foliage so I'm on the look out for some aesthetically pleasing but reasonably priced snowy fir trees. I hope you're enjoying this series of hobby articles. It's a refreshing change for me to be talking about painting rather than just rules and tournaments.

The Winter Scenery Project (Part 3 of Many) - Snow/Ice Corner Ruins and Moonscape Craters

In spite of the many doubters (myself included), I've actually been making decent progress towards getting an entire table full of snow/ice terrain completed. In the last post I showed you a test piece I'd been working on. I've since applied the same technique to the other two 3rd edition ruins I have in my collection which can be seen below:

The ruins themselves were already painted but the bases got a coat of The Fang followed by Fenrisian Grey (both applied with my airbrush). I then drybrushed Ceramite White (since it's thicker than White Scar) before adding Citadel Snow and some Army Painter Winter Tuft. The drybrushing wasn't limited to the base though, I tried to work it up the walls at little way to make them look frosty. I hope this comes across.

Whilst I had the airbrush out I decided to attack my Moonscape craters too. You'll remember that one of them is mounted on the base of my Shrine of the Aquila but the remaining four only had a black undercoat (plus some sand around the edge) until I got cracking. I covered the whole crater with Mechanicum Standard Grey before applying The Fang around the outside (mostly on the flat bit around the edge but also up onto the crater slightly). I then hit this with a lighter coating of Fenrisian Grey. Finally I sprayed the middle of the crater with Abaddon Black to make it look scorched. This process took less than an hour thanks to the airbrush (and that includes the airbrushing on the corner ruins too). I'm very glad I picked up an airbrush at this point as getting the base colours down is tedious even with a tank brush and you end up struggling to only put a thin coat on.

I then drybrushed the whole thing with Ceramite White. I focussed this more on the outside edge as this was more frosted but also picked up the edges everywhere apart from the very centre of the crater. My thinking here is that these craters come from a battle before Winter set in. Maybe a previous war actually caused a kind of nuclear winter and that's why the planet is frozen now? Of course this would mean you'd expect there to be snow in the middle too but I theorised that repeated use as a fox hole would mean little was left in the centre. Anyway, I finished the craters off like the ruins with Citadel Snow and more AP Winter Tuft. 

Finally here's a shot of Ragnar and some Blood Claws using the ruins for cover. This helps highlight one of my current problems. My Space Wolves were based to match my old brown home made Realm of Battle board but they don't fit in with the new terrain. Problem is, the colours I'm using on this terrain are effectively the same as their armour so you wouldn't get much contrast between the model and the base. I think I'm going to stick with Graveyard Earth/Steel Legion Drab for their bases for now though as I intend on revamping the Realm of Battle board at some point. When I eventually get around to painting my DE and Orks though I'll probably give them snowy bases. The Tau have a desert them but that's going to work with the revamped RoB board too. 

The Winter Scenery Project (Part 2 of Many) - Snowy Test Piece

As you read in my last post I'm working on getting my scenery up to scratch. The aim is to have a good quantity of scatter terrain to work with my Alpine F.A.T mat and give me plenty of variety in my games. I think two tables' worth of scenery would probably be enough to create enough combinations and therefore prevent boredom. This project is motivated by my current boredom with the same scenery I've been using for years. I want to start by painting up the pieces I've already built but for some variety I'll probably make a few new pieces to break up the tedium of painting my old stuff.

Anyway, today's post is about my first test piece for a snowy look. Of course I'm trying to tie the colours in with the F.A.T mat but it doesn't matter too much. I've never made anything look snowy before so I'm just going with my gut. I'm intending to do a bit of YouTube research to see what others do but I want to find a technique that I'm happy with. That basically boils down to maximum results for minimum effort.

I decided to start with some of the 3rd edition corner ruins. Mainly because they're small pieces but also because I'm not too worried if I make a mess of them. The ruins themselves were already painted which took all of about half an hour (albeit a while ago). The bases had sand and rubble (gravel) but just Chaos Black primer in terms of paint. I started with a basecoat of Shadow Grey then an overbrush/heavy drybrush of Space Wolves Grey followed by a lighter drybrushing of  Ceramite White. Incidentally I went for Ceramite White over White Scar as it's a bit thicker and hence lends itself better to drybrush work. You can see the results below with one of the other ruins as a before and after comparison.

I intentionally let some of the Ceramite White hit the bottom third of the ruin to give a frosted look. I then caught the tops of the ruin too as a base for the snow flock. Here's a comparison to the mat:

It's a reasonable match but perhaps needs a different shade of blue/grey as a base to really hit the same colour as the mat itself. I ploughed straight on with some Citadel Snow though to see if that helped:

I think it does help actually as it makes the whole piece whiter. I'm not too happy with the snow as it is though as there are bits I didn't hit with glue that I perhaps should have such as around the front of the column and some bits at the back. I was conscious that I didn't want it to be completely covered though. Finally, I threw on some tufts which I probably should've applied with a pair of tweezers but I wanted this to be quick so couldn't be arsed to find any.

The tufts are Army Painter Winter Tuft but I think I might hit them with some white from the airbrush to help them blend in a bit. At the moment I think they stand out a bit too much and detract from the snowy feel.

That's it for tonight then. I'm very happy with this first piece. Obviously the ruin was already painted but the rest of it didn't even take half an hour I don't think. I'll probably finish the other two ruins that I've got first but then I might look at something a bit bigger. Maybe some of the Moonscape craters with icy water inside. Let me know what you think of my first effort though. It's progress if nothing else!

The Winter Scenery Project (Part 1 of Many)

In an attempt to motivate myself to get cracking I thought I'd write this post outlining the current state of my scenery so that I can look back and see progress. I'm determined that, before the year is out, I'll have a stunning board full of fully painted scenery to make my games much more immersive. I was briefly inspire a while ago by the guys over on Weemen to join their campaign against unpainted grey plastic scenery. I was further motivated by picking up a F.A.T mat in the Kickstarter (again a while ago). Sadly my enthusiasm quickly dwindled and I found myself looking at the same grey scenery just now mounted on bits of hardboard.

Here's what I've currently got built up:

Here we've got some Sanctum Imperialis/Basilica Administratum and Shrine of the Aquila offerings with a Moonscape crater on the base of the Shrine. There's also a random crate that I think was Matt's that I'm going to incorporate into a new based piece. These pieces are all glued onto hardboard little else. They need sand on their bases and some bits of rubble for interest. Then they can be sprayed up black ready for some paint.

This little selection includes two Bastions, the rest of the Moonscape craters set and a Manufactorum building. These have all been build and sprayed ready for painting so need very little work. The craters I could probably get done quickest as I'll just be airbrushing them a suitable colour (probably not the Graveyard Earth/Steel Legion Drab that one currently is. They'll then just get a bit of a drybrushing to get them up to standard.

Finally, here are my "finished" pieces. I use the inverted commas there because they're in the wrong colour scheme for my Alpine mat. Nevertheless these will probably be the last pieces I paint as they're not looking too bad for now. The 3rd edition corner ruins aren't based yet so they're likely to be my first attempts at trying to make stuff look snowy/icy and fit in with the mat.

Speaking of which my theme is going to hopefully be that of an icy deathworld. All of the current pieces will need painting up in a matching scheme with some snow adding for effect. Depending on how well the project goes I'd like to add some more thematic pieces like rock formations, ice crystals and the like. I'd also like to borrow from the Weemen and make some industrial pieces like an abandoned polar outpost kind of thing. If I really get cracking my "stretch goals" would be to have a second set of scenery to match either a new F.A.T mat or alternatively my old home-made Realm of Battle board. This is probably pretty unlikely to happen as I'm good at setting unrealistic targets!

The thing with scenery is, once you get going you realise just how easy it is to paint to a good enough standard. I'm not going to spend hours and hours painting every little detail. I'm hoping it'll mostly be an airbrush/drybrush job i.e. quick and dirty. Of course it won't look as good as a detailed paint job but the idea is for it to be a backdrop for the miniatures rather than detracting from them by being painted better than they are! Since Jamie is quick to mock my lack of progress on this scenery I'm hopefully going to be able to rope him in to give me a hand with the drybrushing and creating some interesting new pieces from my hefty bits box of scenery pieces and general gubbins.

First step I think is to try out some winter effects on one or more of the 3rd edition ruins and see if I can find a method I'm happy with. I don't want to overdo the snow so it's just a white blob but at the same time it needs to tie in with the mat properly. Any suggestions/hints are gratefully received especially if you can link me to a good Youtube guide or something. Wish me luck!

The Super Scenery Project - Part 1 - Aegis Defence Line

You may have noticed that my scenery is something that has gotten a little left behind in the painting stakes (you might not care!). I've got a pretty varied collection of scenery such as the citadel woods, imperial sector ruins, imperial strongpoint (bastions and defense lines) and moonscape craters. Every single bit of it still it it's original straight-from-the-sprue-grey colour scheme. The only bit of scenery that I've got painted is my home made "realm of battle" board which to be honest needs a bit of love. Therefore I've decided to embark upon a project to change this situation. Therefore I'm going to alternate between painting some figures for an army and painting a scenery piece.

The idea here is to make our games of 40K more immersive where the scenery helps set the mood for the game. With the sheer amount of scenery I have this isn't going to be an overnight change but hopefully if I tackle it bit by bit I'll start to get on top of it. This is mostly inspired by the fantastic new 6th edition rulebook which has some excellent battlefields but also from attending the Design Studio Open Day where there were some fantastic looking scenery being painted in a short space of time. With scenery playing a bigger part of 6th edition 40K I want my collection to look it's best. When everything is either factory grey or black undercoat it doesn't really feel like anything special.

In my opinion fortifications will play a big part in these early days of 6th edition as people will be forced to include them to take those quad guns to deal with fliers. Some armies really don't have any other options at the moment (looking at my Space Wolves in particular). Whilst rifleman dreads present a possible method of dealing with fliers I neither own one or want to use one. The Aegis Defense Line is defintely a cost-effective (points and cash wise) alternative. I bought the Imperial Strongpoint boxed set a while back when Matt and I tried out planetstrike and short of assembling and undercoating it there's been little love for it since. Unfortunately I've given Matt and Dave a set of quad guns to make rifleman dreads for themselves so I'm only left with one. This means that I'll have to paint the defense lines in generic colours so they can be used with any of my armies.

Colour Scheme for my Defense Line
I've therefore adopted a simple colour scheme that won't make the lines look like they belong to any force in particular. With all the scenery the aim is to make them look as good as possible for minimal effort. I don't want to spend ages on all the intricate details (as I'd rather paint my armies) but I want something that looks good on the table top and doesn't detract from the atmosphere of battles.

I'm really pleased with how they've turned out. The colour scheme is really simple too. After a chaos black undercoat I simply drybrushed the panels with Charadon Granite (Stormvermin Fur) followed by Fortress Grey (Administratum Grey). I then painted the metal "frame" Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher) and washed the metal parts with Devlan Mud. I deliberately caught the edges of the grey panels to try to cover up any sloppy work with the Boltgun Metal (Leadbelcher) and to give a worn appearance. The aquilas were then drybrushed with Cermate White to make then stand out. The result is a defense line that doesn't look like it's come straight from the factory. I'm going to try out a similar scheme on my bastions. The paintjob is really quick to apply. This defence line only took me a couple of hours to complete (not including letting the wash dry) but I think the effect is pretty good. Bear in mind I'm still mostly using up the old paints so the new ones might vary in colour slightly.

Defense Line Tactics
Whilst I'm on the subject of Defense Lines I think they make an excellent addition to most armies. For 50pts you get a long length of barricade that you can arrange how you like. This can be excellent for providing cover for static elements of your army and for slowing enemies down as they try to reach your lines. Remember that if you use them to project units on objectives that you can go to ground for a 2++ save. They also offer the option for quad guns, icarus lascannons or comms relays which offer some tactical flexibility. The quad gun is pretty vital for my Space Wolves as they don't have any decent anti-flyer options at the moment. By sticking a squad of long fangs behind the line you can have the squad leader operating the quad gun whilst the rest of the squad fires at another target with their missiles. If they eventually get the option of Flakk missiles this unit will be very deadly to fliers.

For my other armies the defense line is also great for my Tau who can use it to protect a squad of footslogging fire warriors on an objective who can now make the most of their 30" range from safety. I'm not so sure there's a role for them in my DE force though. Not only do DE have an option for anti-flyer in the form of their own flyers but also taking a defense line encourages you to have a static portion of your army which isn't something DE should be doing in my opinion.

Either way for 100pts (with a quad gun) it's easy to fit a defense line into your army so I reckon we'll see a lot of them in the early days of 6th.

What's Next?
Before doing any more work on my scenery I need to paint some Kabalite Warriors and a Razorwing/Voidraven for Summer Skirmish at the end of the month. I'll post more scenery pics as and when I get them finished. My next project is to base and paint a Shrine of the Aquila as a centrepiece for my games. I'd love to know what you guys think of my defense lines.