Warhammer 40K (1) - Road to Armageddon

 

This, like all my part 1's, is a bit of a rambler. 

As many of you are probably aware, I used to work in a hobby shop. I worked there for the better part of 10 years and in my time there became very interwoven with the hobby. Debatably interwoven enough to do things like start a blog, or a podcast.  Since "leaving the industry" some odd five years ago I've flirted, probably more than casually with the hobby in various ways. Always participating in some capacity but discovering how I interface with it in a very different way from "the outside." I could really wax lyrical about that for hours at this point but I say all this to say I had a really interesting day. 

See, when you surround yourself 22 hours a day with "hobby people" you tend to forget what it's like for "non hobby people." I think this goes without saying but though I'm referring specifically to Wargames, Painting, Boardgames and RPG when I say "hobby,"  I do truly believe this sentiment extends to any sort of "enthusiast. Whether you collect comics, sports memorabilia, vintage 90's Vampire the Masquerade novels, or are more of bowler, golfer, sporty type, I do think that outside looking in, our hobbies tend to be a bit of a great unknown. 

This all comes to an interesting head today. Part of the company culture at the company I work for now includes a sort of annual check in. Similar to a review, you meet with your direct boss and discuss things like goals and plans for the future. Less of a review by the numbers and more a personable check in. Now obviously these are conversations any manager worth their salt should be having anyway but I think the process is a good one and it leads to interesting conversations and shared experiences. See, part of what makes these consultations so interesting is that the people giving them are sort of explicitly instructed to do "some sort of activity, that the employee chooses" they're told to get out of the office and not just go for lunch or something. My teammates chose things like the firing range, or bow hunting in the woods.  

This was something we did last year and now for two years we've chosen an activity that I think really gets to show my interests and gets me talking. Today was the second of these I've done and for the second year in a row, I've chosen to go tour a few hobby shops in our area and show my boss some of what I get into in my free time.                                

My boss is a bit of a nerd as well and is definitely aware of things like Warhammer, even having read several of the black library novels. So none of this was "new" in that sense but as he looked at some of the kits, games, books etc, beyond sticker shock, he had several questions that I really enjoyed answering because it gave me a chance to sort of be the expert and share something I take such enjoyment from. 

 One question in particular was "so is there's just a guy in here? already painted?" in reference to the Lion El Johnson kit. I found a clamshell blister and began explaining sprues and such. Also humorously he said "he's older than I imagined" to which I responded with a comment about yeah, you haven't seen him in 10,000 years, not since the heresy." 

It did really get me thinking though. I realize that most of my readers (all 8 of you) are really aware of what this hobby entails but it was an interesting peek in from the outside again. I explained sprue cutters and how the game is kind of like risk but more complicated. We had a very long talk about "if all the games are the same or if they're totally different."  For a lot of the conversation though, the subject of sticker shock, pricing, and content per dollar came up. When I first got into the hobby, 3-4 hundred bought you a decent army and now, 300 is the asking price of 2 750 point starters in the Armageddon box. 

Mostly, what got me to open up this old blog though was the thought of step by step document just how much I'm "getting out of this hobby" so to speak. I redownloaded Brushrage and was thinking about documenting fully, the painting of this box set.

To start however, since I plan on sharing this entire entry/series with my boss to show him as well, I wanted to actually take the box out, open it up and show exactly whats in it from a new persons eyes. 

You've seen the box art up top but here's what's advertised on the back, promises of miniatures and rules and more. Oddly this box contains no dice or measuring devices, making it technically unplayable as a single purchase, paint supplies not withstanding. Part of what makes the "starter sets" their own thing is inclusion of those elements.

 

 

 Opening the box we are immediately greeted by a pile of plastic frames and bases. 

 Here I've got all the Space Marine sprues laid out, with a standard mechanical pencil for scale. 

 For the most part, space marines come on one frame, orks are separate. The Comanders for each side share a sprue in this case. Presumably because they only come in this box and arent available outside of it but thats just me guessing. 

 These are each of the Ork sprues. You get two of the bottom left sprue so I've only shown one.

 

This sprue in particular I find kind of strange as it comes with 10 orks and 5 goblins by my quick glance, meaning those units are sold as one kit. I am wondering what the long term plan is for those, whether they'll be getting another set with more options or what. I have gone into this project without reading much discourse and will have to see what the community thinks. 

 The banner is sculpted but has room for an included decal or freehand design

 Below all this plastic is a pile of paper in the form of several books and cards. Having not played any of 10th edition, I don't know the role of all these components but if the project goes long enough may revisit this later. Personally, I bought these to paint and collect but am interested in giving 11th a go. 

 The core rulebook is actually a smaller format than I was expecting which is great as it makes it easier to lug to a game. In it are just rules, no story lore etc. Included is an instruction booklet that comes full of painted examples. For a new person, this is useful but a bit of a disclaimer, theres no painting instructions beyond cursory inspiration.

Another super interesting thing here to me, is this Operation Imperator hardcover book. I am at a point where I'm done buying codex's, do with that what you will. All of the lore has been pulled out of the book and sent over to this book giving some background, setting and character information. This makes this book an entirely self contained story book as it were meaning in a year or so when all the rules are invalidated with updates, this book can stay as an art book/ novella. A smart choice IMO.

I'm currently finishing another project which I'll post shortly but the next step for the Armageddon project is to pick a unit and show exactly what goes in to painting it. The plan is to share this article/series with some of my non hobby people and just give a little insight into what it is I love about this. 
 

 

 

 

 

Fantasy Gaming (8) - Warhammer Underworlds Wurmspat (and nurgle recipes)

 

 I specifically wanted to document some of the recipes for this as I have plans for a maggotkin army soon, should any of that stuff come back in stock. The recipe is mostly from The Painting Coach on youtube but i diverted in spots.

 Armor: Paint AK gunmetal, wash dark tone, wash strong tone, Stipple Gunmetal then brighter metal. mix miltarum green contrast with ap speed paint medium 1:2 and glaze into dark spots and recesses. Glaze plaguebearer flesh contrast on to highlights while militarum is still damp. glaze plague bearer over rest of metal

Rust: AK 3g Dark Rus, then med rust stippled over rusty spots 

Skin: Valejo Game color (old) pale flesh ( i didnt have kislev flesh) wash with ap flesh wash. rehighlight with pale flesh, wash sores etc with druchii violet for bruising. blood as needed

Tentacles: skin then wash 2 coats druchii violet

Sores: flesh, then spot on white, then imperial fist yelow contrast

Misc Wood is vallejo old wood. Bones etc vampiric flesh with strong tone. Misc cloth in AK3G russian nato green or two thin coats sword hilt burgundy. all washed strong tone. helmet was white with wildly thinned out plagubearer flesh. AK3G copper

Fantasy Gaming (7) - More Mordheim Scatter and First Warband

 We sat down for a marathon paint session the other night and managed to crack out a pretty significant amount of scatter terrain. This was all painted with craft paints for the most part and 3d printed from Hexengarde this time around. 

The walk ways are from printable scenery

 Rubble Piles

Barricades

Lampposts and Walkways. The lamposts are WIP still as I figure out what I wanna do with the lights themselves

Well, Town Notice Board. Also WIP as I decide what to do for the actual notices.

Cargo Piles, Lumber Piles

Sewers and a better shot of the side of the risers. These risers use a openlock clip system and are really sweet and modular.

Here you can see the system in detail

I set up a few shots just to see it all out at the same time.

I also managed to finish my first warband. These are mercenaries. The files are from reptilian overlords i believe and are pretty decent. 

I actually slapchopped the first guy probably over a year ago and never got around to the rest.

Works in Progress (3) - A small workbench update

 I recently, between projects painted the first of a flesh eater courts spearhead. 

 I also managed to finally get the second half of the BLKOUT starter done

 I figured out how to print mechs for arsenal

 I powered through and built some breachers for my Word Bearers

Next on the workbench I have an addition to the Fantasy terrain. I have my first Mordheim Band completed (and depending on posting schedule possible a game in there somewhere)

I also have a brand new warband for Shadow War Armageddon, at least one more Underworlds band and possible some other surprises. 

Here's my current plan for trying to stay focused (place bets now)

I'm only working on three things at a time. If I finish a project, I can start a new one. If I work on a project it goes to the top of the list. If I ever have 3 finished projects between an in progress one and the top of the list, I shelve that project. So far so good. 
 

Fantasy Gaming (6) - Warhammer Underworld (1) - Some Warbands

 But first a brief update. 

Here's the story. My work has decided to block the blogger domain and I was previously (all of last year) setting up blog drafts at lunch and then scheduling the posts out. This has all but killed my ability to post as when I've had the free time to do hobby and hobby adjacent tasks (like blog) I've spent that free time painting. The second, slightly ugly truth is, for no reason I can explain, the AHPC did the opposite of motivate me this year. For whatever reason, I hammered some stuff out, made my first post and then proceeded to not touch a brush for the remainder of the challenge. I haven't really unpacked it, its very possible that its work that stopped the hobby (lots of changes in the last 8 months that were more or less ignored here as the blog was set to auto post almost 2 months in advance)

Regardless I have been painting again this April. Pretty pictures first, then story (you've had enough of me ranting I'm sure. 

 

Long ago, GW released Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire. This is a board game where each bespoke warband came with its own deck of cards. The rules encouraged playing to the objective and each deck (faction) had its own ways of scoring. I bought the core box, painted one of the stormcast for an advertisement for the Hobby Shop and then never finished the set. We played maybe once? And although I remember liking it, it fell by the wayside as so many games do (looking at you aristeia(sp))

Here's that original paint job by the way, in case you want to compare notes from ten years ago

 

I remember pouring my heart into that paint job. Its funny now, spending the last ten or so years focusing on decent but quick painting styles how quickly I cracked the three out. The old tone was much redder and much more GW. The new, a shinier gold. 

I then turned my attention to Garrek's Reavers (probably, i cant keep these straight and its late here.)

These are the set that came with the original core box. The new skill here was mixing a dot of various colors into the skin in order to vary the tone slightly. These got a glaze of the original skin base which seemed to do ok for all three of the tones I used. 

Now I'm sure you're thinking, he's boiling the frog again. We're gonna read all this and not even know were in the middle of one of his listless reminiscing sessions. You know me so well. 

Why is he painting a 10 year old box set? Well the answer there is Paul. See Paul decided while on vacation, to spend some time looking into this game and as fate would have it, there's a new edition out. after some back and forth texting he proceeds to tell me hes purchased it all. He's not quite sure he got it all as there are some lots and he needs to meet up with a couple sellers to actually pick up what he bought but there's at least most of it and the new second edition starter set. Behold, distraction Skeletons.

As a lot of GW stuff, I dabbled. I already had the starter and as it turns out I had the Sepulchral Guard in my pile of shame as well. See for all my ribbing of Paul, he was right, you can get the second edition starter for a steal. (I paid around 60 on ebay for a copy shipped once I was done making fun of his impulsiveness)

I boldly adopted a "1 out 1 in" strategy to only buy a new set once I painted one I had. I promptly pulled this set off the shelf and finished the final details to get them to the table as well.

These figures were painted on release close to 10 years ago (i have no idea how long exactly) and Mollog (troll) was all but finished. So I painted the rock and the mushroom and the bases and called it a day. 

Now, dear reader, Do you think I held up my end of the strategy? Here we are with 4 out, how many do you think came in?

Most (not all) of the warbands are now sold in packs of 4 based off grand alliance. This means if I show my wife the range and say "who looks cool" and she rightfully picks the crab (look it up) that I need to buy 3 other factions to go with it. Which is fine, painting these has been an absolute joy and has just slaughtered the painters block I'd be struggling with. 

A few warbands however, like the Savage Orks (already found on ebay) or Cyreni's Razors (searching desperately) aren't in these packs yet. 

If you guessed 13, you'd be eerie specific but also right. 

While on a work trip in Grand Rapids I stopped by two stores I like to frequent and ended up with Reavers and Ruin, Seekers in Shadow, and Grandfathers Gardeners. 

I'm currently working my way through Zikkit's Tunnelpack but will probably paint either one of the Nurgle bands next or Elathrains Soulraid for my wife.