Of course, the utility she brings to the table obviously had no bearing on this decision….

Despite being an elf, I wanted her to look a little different to my other Iosans. To begin with, I decided to make her even more ethereal, so I used a very muted palette of neutral colours, and as a winter themed model, I made her cloak of feathers, white.

With her paint scheme chosen, I wanted to try something different with her base also. To tie in with the rest of my army, I used the same water effects and paving, but in her case, it seemed very reasonable that the water beneath her feet should be frozen.

To get this effect, I created the base as per normal, and then in the ‘wet’ area, I used water effects with a tiny bit of turquoise ink mixed in. Once dry, I painted over the water effects with a lay of crackle paint.

This stuff is normally used for scrapbooks and it shrinks as it dries to create a crackled surface. I know there are a few different makes on the market, but I used Ranger Crackle Accents.

Once that was completely dry, a few glazes of thinned white paint was applied. This flowed into the cracks to highlight those, and made the surface slightly opaque just like real ice.

To finish off, a few patches of fine snow/pvc mix was added and voila, a frozen water feature!

Well firstly, I still haven’t read the eldar codex I bought on its release day. What I have done is embroidered an Iyanden craftworld logo for a friend as he has cracked out his eldar for the first time in many years. As a bonus, he also the new Iyanden mini-codex to look forward too which is both annoying, because it is only available directly from GW and at the moment it is only available on the iPad; and very cool at the same time.

While I’m not entirely convinced on charging an additional £30 for a digital mini-codex that also requires the eldar codex, I suspect the hardback version will be very nice.

On the Warmachine side, there has been much more activity.

Firstly, we had PP’s big show, Lock & Load, the same weekend as the Eldar release. This is Privateer Press’ big show of the year, and tends to be full of teasers and announcements for the coming year. In between all the new shiny Convergence of Cyriss stuff (which I’m liking alot), we also heard about the latest Warmachine expansion, Vengeance, and a host of new casters including Issyria, Sybil of Dawn…

…and a new Retribution character myrmidon,  Imperatus.

Umm, I think this is shaping up to be a very nice year for the angry elves.

Back on this side of the pond, so far, my Hyperion has had exactly one outing,  in a 35 Rahn ‘Fires from on High’ theme list. While the colossal itself performed ok, it seems Rahn and I do not get along. This could be because I keep on using him against casters that either (a) have lots of magical defence or (b) could not be knocked down.

It this particular case, a double-handed throw could have probably won me the game or at least kept me in it a bit longer. And it would have also have helped if the Battle Mages did not fail two command checks in a row. Hindsight is a great thing, however having a piece on the table which was difficult kill was great and very different from fielding normal Retribution heavies.

As a change of pace, I am currently painting Dawnlord Vyros which will give me a chance to build a very different style of army list. Expect more myrmidons and heavier infantry. I have also finished painting Lanyssa Ryssyl because she has some interesting abilities, especially combined with Hyperion.

More importantly she is a good excuse to play with some different hobby techniques, however there will be more on that in another post.

In addition to all this, I have also been trying out my new P3 Wet Palette. This works really nicely and is a nice upgrade from my DIY wet palette.

And finally, after one trip to Paris last week, I am now over half way through re-reading the Hobbit. Speaking of which, here’s the trailer for the second film.

Enjoy, and trevlig helg!

It has taken quite a long time, but the Hyperion for my ‘Starbucks’ Retribution is finally painted. This means for our ‘paint ten points per month challenge’ at SPIF, I win in May.

It also means I can finally field Rahn’s ‘Fires from High’ theme list because as I’ve discovered, the Adeptus has some issues playing armies with magical defence and stuff that prevents knockdown. In particular, the game against Baldur the Stonesoul last week was, err, challenging. More guns should help, as will the other four Stormfall Archers.

If all else fails, I’m liking the P+S 20 fists. A myrmidon with some real hitting power; that will make a change.

I’m also planning to pair the big beastie with Ravyn as I’m determined to put together a list for her including Invictors. The traditional Ravyn list (Disco, Mage Hunters, Stormfalls, etc, etc) doesn’t really work for me, so this is also a good opportunity to try something different because she is my favourite Iosan caster at the moment. As I like Invictors as well, so they WILL get thrown in as well.

And finally, there’s Ossyan. Ossyan and me do not have a good history together, however he should see some more table time, and suspect the Lord Arcanist and Hyperion will make an interesting match, especially with his Quicken spell. Nothing wrong with a SPD 7 colossal.

Anyway, after a quiet May on this blog, I am hoping to catch up again in June. Amongst other things, there should be a few product reviews (actually, the first one got posted yesterday) and a new shiny codex for my other big Warhammer 40000 army, the Eldar.

In the meantime, it looks like I have some list ideas to try out.

Up until recently, almost everything fitted in one Games Workshop hard figure case, contained in two foam trays. This kept everything nice and safe, especially on a long trip back to England last year in the back of the car. Then I added the Invictors, and Battle Mages, and a second unit of Stormfall Archers, and some other models; so I needed to use a small Feldherr case as well.

This was fine, because I always carried around a small messenger bag for all the other bits and pieces required for Warmachine such as my dice, templates, the Steamroller pack, and very occasionally a tournament tray. Carrying a figure case and shoulder bag was not a big deal.

However, adding the Hyperion, and then with everything else I haven’t even built yet, I am going to have a storage issue for this army.

Thankfully there are plenty of storage solutions on the market and it has to be said, I already own a few of them. However the colossal in particular was going to be awkward, and I was very keen to keep all of my Retribution in a single case if possible. After checking out KR Multicase, Feldherr, and others, I decided to go for the most expensive solution, a Battlefoam Warmachine bag.

OK, in fairness, this probably an over the top solution, but as my Warmachine stuff occasionally travels with me on holiday, I wanted something solid enough to survive in the back of my car together with all the other stuff we take on holiday (and with three kids, we do not travel light). I also had an unexpected bonus hit my bank account, so while this bag was expensive, that wasn’t a problem.

I also really liked the option to have custom foam trays and a standard tray option for carrying my Mage Hunters which took up a lot of space in the old GW case. The flip side of this was that the bag took a really long to get here because the custom foam is made in the US and then shipped to England. However my custom half tray (for the jacks) was around £10 which wasn’t too bad.

Almost two months later, a very nice guy from UPS delivered my new Battlefoam bag this afternoon. A review is in order methinks.

First impressions are very good. The case itself is a good deal bigger than either my Feldherr Maxi or any of my normal GW cases. Thankfully it isn’t as awkward to carry as either my big GW army case or my very old Charon Skirmish Pack. I was a little disappointed that this case seems to be the older version of the Warmachine case without the additional reinforcement on the top panel so I guess those newer bags are only available in the US; but the strap looks better than I expected (more on that later).

After hearing a few horror stories about Battlefoam’s foam, I have to say I’m actually very impressed with it. It is no where near as soft as the stuff KR uses, but it seems pretty similar to the GW or Felderr foam. The denser base layer is a great idea and I like that, especially as a tray full of Warmachine models can be quite heavy.

The trays themselves are designed very well. The standard infantry tray fits most of the Retribution models I have very well, and the Mage Hunter tray is ace. I haven’t used the Hyperion tray yet, but my custom heavy myrmidon tray fits my heavies perfectly.

The big selling point of the Battlefoam Warmachine bag is all of the extra storage it has. Apart from the drinks holder which could be bigger (ie big enough to fit my dicebag); this is all really useful.

The three front pockets have my Steamroller folder, templates, and tape measure; the big side pocket has my dicebag and tokens; and then there’s the compartment on the back.

The back section of the bag is specifically designed to carry all the stuff you need to play Warmachine. The eight card pockets are perfect for separating cards for Warcasters, Warjacks, Units and Solos; plus we have a binder for nine card leaves, which is handy as I use those.

Opposite, there are four pen holders for dry wipe markers. Unfortunately these are a little small for the markers I have, and the stitching from one of the pen straps has come away at the corner. This is a little annoying, but very minor (Ruth could probably fix this in a couple of seconds).

Fully loaded, this section of the bag has plenty of space to also carry my tournament tray which is great.

The one thing I have done is replaced the shoulder strap with something a bit more solid and comfortable from an old laptop bag. The handle on the top of the bag seems ok, but I do not think I would trust it once the bag is fully loaded. The connections for the shoulder strap on the other hand wrap underneath the bag and look much better.

Overall, I have to say I’m impressed. For essentially a soft bag, it is far more solid than either my Feldherr or Charon bags, thanks to the big plastic panels sewn into all six sides of the bag. It is not, however, as solid as a hard case.

Storage wise, I think it will handle my Retribution if I do not add too much more. I am already using every tray, although the second infantry tray only holding six Battle Mages at the moment. Without the Hyperion, there would be plenty of spare room, but the big reason to get this case was to carry the big boy with everything else.

The foam trays themselves are great and I suspect I will be investing in some spares.

Even with all the little criticisms , I really like this bag and hopefully it will serve me well for a long time to come. And as a bonus, my Cygnar stuff finally has a GW case to call their very own.

I will reserve judgement on the book until it hits the streets in a couple weeks, however compared to the Tau launch, the Eldar launch is a little lite.

Firstly the bad stuff, no new jet bike sculpts, no plastic aspect warriors and only a handful of new HQs. I suspect after the stock issues following the Tau release, GW are taking a more steady approach, or the Eldar release has been rushed to market before the full release of toys was ready. And why did we need another Farseer sculpt?

Considering the age of some of the existing Eldar miniatures, such as the jet bikes, which have been repackaged (?), this is REALLY disappointing.

On the flip side, the three big plastic kits accompanying this release look absolutely excellent.

To start with, the new plastic Wraithguard kit finally makes the unit affordable, and better still gives us multiple poses and a completely new unit, the melee oriented Wraithblades. Aside from the fact the Wraithguard really needed a plastic kit, I actually like the new Wraithblades and I think these fit really well with the Eldar background.

And speaking of robots, the pixies get their very own giant robot thing in the same vein as the Dreadknight and the Tau Riptide; however the Wraithknight is… err… a bit bigger. From the looks of things, the Wraithknight is only a little smaller than the Revenant Titan, and while the version with the shield looks a bit naff, it looks ace with two main guns.

OK, in fairness this is a £70 kit, but it is still dreamy and I want one.

And finally the third plastic kit is the flyer. I will quickly gloss over the Hemlock option because I do not think it fits the Eldar aesthetic very well, however, the Crimson Hunter looks excellent. Actually, I would say the Hunter is easily the best looking flyer in the entire 40K range and unlike most of them, it actually looks plausible. A++ I think; which means it will probably be rubbish in the game.

Anyway, so far, while I like these kits, I’m bit disappointed in this release because GW could have done so much more with it. This said, it has been a while since I was excited about a 40K release and I’m looking forward to these guys alot.

Hopefully a second wave of Eldar is just around the corner, but in the meantime I have to decide if I’m going to finish the grav tanks I have, or buy some more toys…

Whilst I’m not normally big on Kickstarters, this one I think is really interesting because of the potential of the technology, plus I known all of the guys involved, and they are all top chaps. In particular, the gun carriage looks rather fine and if I know Dave and Fergus, there’s a lot more stuff they are working on.

Anyway, rather than me dribbling on, if you want to learn more, and the prospect of cheap, custom plastic bits for your armies appeals, click on the big PDC Gaming logo below to visit their Kickstarter page.

UPDATE: PDC have reached their funding goals so expect to see some cool stuff come from these guys!

One of the nice things with bigger projects is seeing it all come together. So far only the legs, head and fists are finished; but as main pieces have connecting pins, it was easy enough to dry fit them together for this photo.

I’m hoping to start of his torso, including the sunburst cannon (or sparkle cannon), this week. This is pretty much the biggest, most complex part of this model to paint. However with the size of this model, it should be straightforward enough.

I already have some plans for the main gun that should make it ‘pop’ against my normal colour scheme.

Whilst I’ve been working on Hyperion, my rather fantastic wife has started to stitch together a new dice bag for my Retribution.

Pictures will have to follow later, but I have to say, I’m rather chuffed with the logo…

The past week has been annoying. For varying reasons, I haven’t managed to get any actual gaming in for a couple of weeks. This means Rahn and my Battle Mages still haven’t hit the table.

On the flip side, I have been able to make progress on the Hyperion project.

As an idea candidate for the airbrush, getting this model base coated has actually been surprisingly quick, just a single evening’s work for each of the main colours. Highlighting with the airbrush was a little more challenging because I’m working with edge highlighting rather than zenith highlighting, but at least it is started.

The Tamiya low-tact tape I have has been invaluable for masking various sections of the model whilst I have been using the airbrush. In particular I’m rather proud of the stripe detail on the left shoulder pad and right knee, which although fairly simple, is very clean on the model.

The only problem using the airbrush is that the thing takes a lot of time and effort to clean properly. And for the record, I really have to get some Vallejo Model Air colours, at least for the simple colours such as white, because citadel paints can be a pain to shoot through the thing.

Anyway, the next task is to start all of the detailing. As this is a big model with a surprising amount of detail this is going to take a while. This said I’m hoping to get him finished before the end of May.

KOed News

One of the other distractions from my Hyperion has been my wife’s little business, KOed Dicebags. Several months ago she started working on an order for Warlord Games, specifically a set of bags for their Bolt Action game, and that has taken over the workshop in our house.

The first three designs (101st Airbourne, German Army and Soviet) are already shipped and available via Warlord Games’ webstore and Ruth shipped the first batch of the fourth design at the end of last week.

However, as they seem to have been popular, we are doing a set of another four designs which is great for her business. And because I needed to digitise these designs over the weekend, I did I couple of extra designs for myself at the same time.

Well, my Retribution really did need a new embroidered bag, as does the mistress…

A review is probably in order.

But first an admission. I do not do roleplay games anymore, and I haven’t for a very long time. This is largely due to time limitations but also because I much prefer the arty side of miniature gaming. This said, my roleplay credentials, while a bit out of date, are extensive; including Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Dungeons & Dragons, Shadowrun, Mechwarrior, Torg and many others.

I am also a bit of a fluff bunny when it comes to my wargames and sadly enough, I really enjoy reading all of the background stories. This is one of the weaknesses of the main Hordes and Warmachine rulebooks and while they give a good impression of the Iron Kingdoms, they are hardly comprehensive guides.

So enter the Iron Kingdoms Roleplay Game Core Rulebook (IK RPG for short I think). I finally got my copy and I have to say, my first impressions were very very good. The book itself is a very solid (and rather heavy), full colour hardback. Unlike the Warhammer 40000 book, nothing in this book seems superfluous and the book itself is not unwieldy (Games Workshop, take note). As always, the artwork and production are top-notch.

The first part of the IK RPG fills the void in the two miniature game rulebooks and covers the history of the Iron Kingdoms in broad terms from a world history point of view, up to the events described in the MKII Forces books. This means there are no Colossals in the Iron Kingdoms, or at least not quite yet; but instead we get a comprehensive history of the Iron Kingdoms.

For fans of Hordes, or the lesser races in the IK world, it should be noted that the Iron Kingdoms themselves receive the most attention. The wilder parts of Immoren will have to wait until a later expansion book.

The next big section is about Life in the Iron Kingdoms. This describes the Kingdoms themselves, the religions, races, languages, technology and the place of magic in the world. This is the section I’m reading at the moment and I have to say I’m really enjoying it.

I haven’t gone into too much detail about the game itself yet, however it is unusual in that the core mechanics are based on the miniatures game. This is a similar approach to Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay and greatly decreases the learning curve for fans coming to the roleplay game from Warmachine or Hordes. For my point of view, this is a good thing, however I could imagine serious roleplayers might be put off by this.

Character creation seems pretty straightforward, however as an interesting twist characters can combine two different career paths. This means the relatively limited section of careers in the Core book actually provide a lot of variety. So far I think my personal favourite has to be the Iosan Mage Hunter Gun Mage. Now all we need is rules for bringing this character into my Retribution army as a solo…

Anyway, the main rulebook also has rules covering magic, building mechanika items, and even rules for warjacks. Yes, there is also a warcaster career path.

The only things missing are a detailed guide to a single city in the Iron Kingdoms or an introductory adventure. However this is being picky and Privateer have already uploaded a lot of resources on their website (including an adventure), plus the Urban Adventures book. And there has also been a lot of support for the IK RPG in No Quarter which is good to see.

In conclusion, this fanboy is impressed. If RPGs are your thing and you play Warmachine, I don’t think you will be disappointed. And I for one can’t wait until Privateer start releasing more sourcebooks for the IK world.

Although he has lost a bit of his power in the post Colossal meta, Adeptus Rahn is still one of the Scyrah’s premiere casters, and he has telekinesis which is one of my favourite spells in the game, and to be honest, its one of the reasons I miss playing Major Haley.

Rahn’s movement shenanigans do not stop telekinesis. Oh no. His big pointy stick gets beat back, which is appropriate as he is chief Battle Mage. And it even has a critical slam, which is the kind of thing I’m likely to forget when it might be useful.

Then we get to his spells… Polarity shield denies charges, which has potential. Force Blast pushes things around that get too close to his jacks, and Force Hammer is a ranged slam. And he has enough Focus to cast it twice. And a feat that can fully boost both slams.

Umm, nice. I think I can work with those tricks.

Work and sensible match ups allowing, I’m hoping to play him this week at club. However I do need to figure out a list. It is entirely possible it will include the Battle Mages I painted earlier in the year and the two Battle Mage solos I have. Plus an arc node.

Unfortunately his ‘Fires from High’ theme list will have to wait until I get one more, admittedly quite large, model painted. That might take some time as the downstairs room is swamped in dice bags for at the moment.