Necron Gandalf - or Kamoteph the Crooked

For this year's Store Anniversary miniatures, Games Workshop had one new Necron for Warhammer 40K and a Stormcast Eternal for Age of Sigmar. I'd thought about picking up one of the Stormcast's for my son, but he seemed ambivalent about it, so I ended up just getting one of the Necrons for my new Necron force. Kamoteph the Crooked is just a vanilla Cryptek with no special rules, which is sort of nice because he will always slot nicely into any Necron army and won't become a "legend" - losing all official support. I really liked the look of the miniature - he's absolutely ancient even by Necron standards and has that whole "get off my lawn" vibe about him.

New Year - New Army Part II - Seraphon!

I'd played a little Warhammer Fantasy Battle back in the day, but never really got a full force painted and eventually all of the miniatures found their way to ebay or other resale organizations. For several years I'd toyed with the idea of revisiting the system, but it wasn't until our visit to Warhammer World in 2019, that I was truly inspired. In the exhibition, the full painted Seraphon range for Warhammer - Age of Sigmar was on display in all its glory. I was drawn to the Seraphon because, well, dinosaurs! Last year I ended up buying a few miniatures (the two "Start Collecting" boxes), but I never made any significant progress on getting them together or painted. Fast forward to Christmas 2020, and my son gets a box of Stormcast Eternals (the Easy to Build Sequitors) as a present and is jazzed enough to start painting them. I had a box of Liberators I'd picked up for another project (watch this space) that I contributed to the cause, so he's now well on his way to creating a small Stormcast army. With him taking the plunge, I figured it was time to get my own army and all of its reptilian goodness going!

Converted Genestealer Cult Armies in Warhammer 40K - How Far Down the Rabbit Hole?

Warhammer 40K has always been a creative hobby. While Warhammer 40K is a game, it is a game where the player has to at least build the playing pieces on their own. Most people paint the playing pieces as well (and this step is generally required for major tournaments). However, some players don't stop there, they heavily convert or even scratch-build forces to create a truly unique army. I've frequently posted my converted Astra Militarum forces that I run alongside my Genestealer Cult as a separate Brood Brothers detachment, but why stop at just Astra Militarum?

New Year, New Army... Necrons!

It's the time of the year when all of the various gaming companies are hoping you'll pick up something new rather than moving on to another hobby or company. Games Workshop is, of course, no exception with their New Year, New Army story where many of the employees from their studio highlight what their plans and projects are for the new year. In my own New Year's post, I indicated that one of my projects for the this year would be necrons, but honestly it is an army I've had a love/hate relationship with for years. In this first "new army" article, I'll go through the army's history, why I haven't done an army until now, my first mostly completed warrior, and where I'm hoping to go from here.

First painted Indomitus Necron - we'll call him "Bob"

Happy New Year - Let's Hope This One is Better!

Happy New Year everyone! With 2020 now finally receding into the rear-view mirror I can truly say I'm looking forward to the new year. To say that 2020 did not go to plan and did not live up to my hopes and expectations is an understatement of epic proportions. This has truly been a trying year for everyone. The pandemic has impacted us in ways both large and small. Very little good has come out of it with pain, difficulty, tragedy, and heartbreak being far more common. Above and beyond the pandemic, the United States especially is also suffering from an intense partisan divide which shows no signs of abating any time soon. My greatest hope is that we're able to begin to regain a sense of normalcy as the vaccines roll out and people can begin to resume their normal lives, but we have a long way to go.

Citadel Holiday Miniature of the Year - Jakkob Bugmansson

Last year during the holiday season I painted up the annual Games Workshop holiday miniature, The Red Gobbo, and took home a best painted in the local Warhammer Store's contest. He was a fun little guy to paint up, and I ended up putting him in an individual case and he is now a permanent part of the décor in my gaming room. This year, I'd doubted that there would be a holiday miniature painting competition, but like a champ Warhammer Hillsboro came through with a virtual competition involving this year's holiday miniature, Jakkob Bugmansson.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!

Regardless of what holidays you celebrate at this time of year, I just wanted to take time out and hope everyone has a great one despite the challenges wrought by the pandemic this year. I firmly believe this is a year many of us will always remember, though in many ways we'd rather forget it. It has been full of unexpected challenges and disappointments, more tragedies than triumphs, and has truly tested all of us to the breaking point. 

Our Trip to Warhammer World - Summer 2019 Callback - Part 2

While the retail areas of Warhammer World are amazing, and being able to buy Forge World items off the shelf is a treat (and pay UK prices which are now lower than US prices), the real highlight of the whole experience for me was the Exhibition Centre. As I mentioned in the previous installment, the exhibitions start out with a brief history of Citadel Miniatures and Games Workshop. It then opens up into more detailed displays of many of the various product lines, all expertly painted, but there are many larger displays and dioramas which tell stories from various parts of Warhammer and Warhammer 40K cannon. Mixed among these are several smaller vignettes, some of which date back decades to the early days of Games Workshop. Given I started playing Warhammer 40K during its Rogue Trader debut, this was a very welcome trip down memory lane!

The Orks attack!

Our Trip to Warhammer World - Summer 2019 Callback - Part 1

Needless to say, this year has been an absolute bust for travel, vacation, camping, etc. However, it suddenly occurred to me that I'd never posted any pictures of our trip to Warhammer World during the summer of 2019. We spent nearly two weeks in the UK (England and Scotland), and honestly tried to take way too much in during that time including castles, cathedrals, Roman ruins, and even Tankfest! However, as hitting Warhammer World was on my bucket list, we had to at least spend an afternoon there.

Space Marine guarding the car park

Armies on Parade Awards Date Set

After some digging on the Warhammer 40K Facebook page, I found a cute video announcing when the Armies on Parade awards would be announced - December 19 at 1:45 GMT. So that's this Saturday! Of course, 1:45 GMT is 5:45AM Pacific, so I'll be checking out the replay once I wake up... likely a couple of hours later! The whole ceremony is going to be on Twitch, so anyone who is interested can click the links above or snag the URL from the image below.

Mortar Squad for the Brood Brothers

With Armies on Parade over, I've finally gotten back to finishing up a few projects that I'd had lying around. One of them is a fun little Heavy Weapon squad with mortars. The nice thing about this particular unit is I can slot it into my regular Genestealer Cult army or I can kick it over to the Astra Militarum detachment depending on what I want to run. The miniatures started out as the the basic Cadian squad, but I've come into a fair number of "bits" recently, and I decided to go a bit crazy with these guys as advanced modeler's syndrome kicked in.

Brood Brothers Veteran Squad

I wanted an excuse to try something a little different with my Astra Militarum infantry squads, so I decided to take the plunge and create a veteran squad. The Veteran squad really only differs from the traditional infantry squad in one statistic - ballistic skill. So this said to me I should tool up my veterans with as much lethal long-range firepower as possible, and not waste any points on close combat weapons. So that's the direction I went - I have the option of up to three plasma guns plus one heavy bolter, and the Veteran Sergeant has a plasma pistol! For those of you counting figures, yes - there are twelve figures in the picture below even though you can only field ten in a standard squad. This gives me the option of dropping the heavy bolter or a couple of the plasma guns as needed.

Biophagus and Primus for the Cult

I figured while I had my Armies on Parade board up, I may as well snap a couple of photos of some of the miniatures I'd finished up for the entry, but hadn't featured here on the blog. Among those are my finally finished Biophagus and Primus. These were some miniatures I'd picked up ages ago, but could never quite get to come together the way I wanted them to. I finally bucked down over the past month or so and got them painted up. I especially wanted to get the Biophagus painted, as my army background is based on the Twisted Helix concept, and his research and experimentation (originally as a Chief Medical Overseer Markow in the Astra Militarum) was the vector by which the whole cult started.

On the Road to Armies on Parade - Part 5 - A Wretched Hive of Scum and Villainy

I'm finally getting into the home stretch on the board of doom, but I've got a bit of a ways to go yet. The first pass of the surface is good to go, though I'll be adding a little bit of static grass to the corners to just provide some additional interest. I'm hoping to get the trench line done, but if it doesn't happen, I won't be broken hearted. It's a neat piece, but the compromised detail on some of the surroundings makes it a beast to paint. The ground effect is made up of fine and medium soil and dirt ballast, with a little bit of Ammo of Mig Kursk Soil (AMIG1400) pigment thrown in.

Surface with crater-ponds and trench line placeholder

On the Road to Armies on Parade - Part 4 - Workin' in a Coal Mine

I've made quite a bit of progress on the lower levels of the board since the last installment. The mine level is nearly done, and now you can see all of the extra bits I've added to bring it together. I used one of the old resin Forgeworld 12" x 12" floor tiles (now OOP) to create a raised platform with a couple of Plastruct truss structures and some cut foam so it looks like the wrecked Goliath drove onto its platform from something. You can also see the test fit of the fragdrill in the upper quadrant. Also reealed is the reason for the green LED lights that were in the "effects package" for the mine level - they're glowing green crystals of course! I epoxied some quartz crystals together in order to create them, as if you've got a mine, there should be something exotic down there to actually extract!

Lower mine level - nearly done!

On the Road to Armies on Parade - Part 3 - Scratching the Surface

As this is part three of the series on this year's Armies on Parade board, I figured it was about time to get around to talking about the third layer of this cake - the surface level. I'll also go through some major updates on the mine level as well, as that level is coming right along. My parade board is designed to tell a bit of a story, with the Uprising taking place simultaneously across the planet - in the mines, in the Hive city, and across the planet's surface. As my army is a mix of traditional Genestealer Cult models with a very liberal dose of unique Brood Brothers examples, I figured I needed at least some surface area to show off some of the larger vehicles that wouldn't show up in a mine or Underhive.

Early phases of surface construction

On the Road to Armies on Parade - Part 1 - First Steps

Of all of the great experiences I've had playing and painting miniatures for Warhammer 40K, last year's Armies on Parade was one of the highlights. I've always loved not only building, converting, and painting the miniatures, but telling a story with those miniatures. I'd also managed to make it to Warhammer World while vacationing in the UK last year and saw the amazing dioramas on display there realizing I was not the only one who wanted to take that storytelling to the next level (or in the case of the displays at Warhammer World, the next 50 levels or so!). Last year I didn't win a medal at our local shop, but I did take home best painted for my "Uprising" themed entry. With that great experience under my belt, I immediately began planning this year's entry.

Doin' the Neutron Dance - The Cult has a Valdor

I honestly can't believe it is already August, 2020. If you'd asked me what I would have been doing at this point, normally I'd have been getting ready for my son's Scout summer camp - of course with all of the COVID insanity, that's been canceled. Honestly most of 2020 has been canceled for all intents and purposes, and sadly it looks like that it isn't going to let up anytime soon. I'm still working toward Armies on Parade for this year, but I'm not sure that will actually happen either. Hopefully it will at worst be postponed for a few months, but in the meantime I've got a lot of miniatures to get painted!

I've always loved the Forgeworld line of resin kits and conversions for Warhammer 40K. I came to 40K from a background in static model building, and in the early 90's built and even cast some of my own resin kits. I've continued to keep my hand in the game with some of my 15mm projects as well. When I saw the Valdor Tank Hunter on the Forgeworld site, I knew I had to add one of these beasts to my burgeoning Cult Brood Brothers force.

Indomitus Made to Order - GW Gets it Right!

After all of the insanity this weekend with the Indomitus box selling out in minutes we've finally gotten a response from Games Workshop, and quite frankly it is the best possible outcome and some of the best customer service I've ever seen from GW. If you go back to my article from yesterday, I'd indicated:

"Given the slim to possible negative margin on the set, I find it unlikely that Games Workshop will end up making more of them - though if they do it would be a really favorable gesture on their part in an effort to improve relations with their customers."

Today on Warhammer Community, there is an announcement revealing that Indomitus will now be "made to order." I can honestly say I'm glad I was wrong in my pessimistic view of their making more sets, but I'll certainly stand by the second half of that statement as the goodwill on web already seems to be spreading.

The Perils of a Loss Leader Strategy - More Things I Think I Think About Indomitus

It is still radio silence from Games Workshop on the fiasco that was yesterday's Indomitus launch, though the speculation and posturing on social media obviously continues unabated. Comments seem to fall into a few distinct camps, but there is the prevailing concept that Games Workshop made a huge amount of money yesterday with Indomitus selling out in minutes. While no doubt they had a banner sales day, in order for a company like Games Workshop to make money, they have to bring in more revenue than they spend on producing and marketing their product.  Based on their typical pricing model, I find it hard to believe that the new box is a real profit machine on its own. In fact, I firmly believe Indomitus was designed as a "loss leader" to bring new players into the stores, and from this perspective it likely failed miserably.