Legion Progress report.

On track!

The three Guard vehicles are built and ready for paint. Ditto on the 3 new marines. Next up a Legion Land Raider Redeemer and an old skool pattern Forge World Rhino. I will then put together the massive GW terrain trench system that will give me three very different terrain systems to choose from and mix and match with. Having so much nice terrain makes me so happy.

I should be all set for painting everything in July and for the fall I have only one official hobby plan. To play some 40k.

I also did another full evening of weathering work on the Legion Venerable. I had used liquid masking for the chipping and didn't get enough resolution to convey scale, so I went back with my old tricks and am very happy with the extra effort. Good practice for the vehicles and the combination of liquid masking and foam and brush chipping really works.

I've also been admiring Forge World Horus Heresy models, the Primarch's in particular and getting quite excited of the huge boost the Alpha Legion models will potentially have for my project.

FLICKR base of operations established.

You can now find Legion of plastic at FLICKR

I gave up on the Blogger shortcomings for galleries and accepted the inherent additional work of an additional broadcast channel.

Your tips of interesting streams to check out, how to build up my galleries to your liking, and other things flickr are most welcome!

Contemplating things to come and appreciating Games Workshop.

This is a bit random, but hoping to get you guys talking about it and mostly looking forward to opinions from those of you who play on a regular basis.

Got my copy of the Eldar Codex with all the new plastic goodies this monday, and had ordered the Tau codex at the same time.

Very very impressed.

Games Workshop is close to receiving the most improved overall product experience award over anything I've seen for a while in any product or brand category. Jes Bichkam has totally saved the White Dwarf. All the new Codexes are well written, the rules are in good balance and benefit variety, and much to my surprise the old art digitally colored looks very very tasty and has a new aesthetic unlike anything I've seen else where. The miniatures are better and better and the sheer output from GW seems to have doubled.

Well done and thank you!

So two of my favorite armies came out in the space of few months and I'm itching to work on something else than Legion after August. I have a big Tau army and a reasonable start to an Eldar army. Both aren't up to my current standards for creating art - but then again, I'd like to play more in the future and do something new and different.

But don't really know how to make more time.

So this has gotten me into thinking about designing the look and feel of the new direction, and outsourcing some of the assembly, priming and base color work to a competent studio. To work more like a designer. Then go in an finish the units with depth and weathering. Obviously the special things I would still do from scratch.

The big dilemma at the minute is weather either of the old schemes is cool enough for me to keep it with the expansions... for the TAU (finished ten years ago) it's a no and also I have 3000pts of them to play with if there is an urge to just park and shoot the crap out of the opponent, which isn't my ideal idea of Warhammer 4000 anyway - so this points me towards my Eldar who are nice and bright. They have one major mistake - the black. I've found that pure black kills a lot of realism and nowadays always paint black as hues of dark grey. Only the most shadowed area of black is actually black opaque black. With this switch I could see myself doing a nice Eldar army. And none of the new units would have the black black mistake.

But (again) obviously I'd like to make the Eldar army of all Eldar armies...something no-one is expecting Eldar to be...and launch myself to another eternity project that might still be the right thing to do with the Allied rules and the Legion and Xenos storyline synergy.

This is where I got several years ago:

Hardanth Eldar @Dakka

Should I add to this army, I will document the working with a painting studio process and hopefully provide plenty of good tips on how to work with such a service provider and how to combine good basics with your own stamp.

Legion WIP update.

Artistic endeavors and musings

Artistic endeavors and musings it says in ABOUT this blog - so here's one to respond to a kind post at Dakkadakka (the best Warhammer 40000 forum in the inter webs)

To understand Blanche is to understand a difference between a creator artist and a sublime illustrator. It's a fairly evolved thing to grasp for most gaming obsessed minds. Both have a great importance for successful sic-fi/fantasy world, but obviously you need a Blanche to create the world that a Dainton can paint in stunning detail. This is my personal opinion anyway. Abnett has then gone and written about what others have ignored, in brilliantly imaginative detail and without any remorse on his loved heroes. 

In life as in the hobby I've been interested in defying the norm and creating and making stuff. 

I have somewhat successfully ignored the labels we like to stamp on hobbyists (gamer vs. painter vs. cheesy this or that vs. GD winner vs. fluff head vs....) From the past I have several third place tournament finishes and 7th place from the UK GT finals in circa 2003, when it was the cheesiest circuit on the planet that involved a few 150 heats of which a 150player final was put togther. I enjoy the fact I went in with a beautifully modeled and very different list and gave those who've dedicated their hobby to the dice gods a good run for their money. I've also been to the Golden Demons once and it went all right. 

BUT, Neither one is for me.

What I love is a good group of friends who want to create beautiful miniatures, great stories and memorable games. Those three can well combine for a tournament, but they are rare gems and I can only recall two out of a dozen or so. More often it's a gaming group getting together. That I miss dearly after moving away from mine a few years ago - so the blog and dakka are place holders for when I hopefully find a few folks who share the motivation. 

I'm some what troubled by the word "like minded" when talking about friends. I have had the utmost fortune to have friends who are not likeminded and create great moments together. I find like minded collectives often quite restrictive and sometimes really elitist. As an example, the +I+munda movement that in large part was kicked off by few of my friends and me getting together to play a campaign followed up and aligned with John Blanche sharing his Inquisitor themed models in the White Dwarf. It has grown into a select and connected group who've done fantastic work and gaming without any of my involvement. Though I am happy to call them my friends. 

But somehow it got framed as the "golden age" of the hobby. When pretty much everyone in the group is missing out on playing army scale for example. Truth is that this is the golden age of the hobby because Games Workshop has created such a brilliant canvas and improved it's offering so dramatically and all different scenes and pockets of the hobby have benefitted tremendously. 

Progress smells like plastic fumes!

I've kept going. No pics yet, but a quick heads up that I've now finished a Chimera. This one is the most simple of the two, partly because there's now crew visible, but also to allow some of the other vehicles be more "loud".

First of the three marines is also finished. The other two are up to 80%. I'm working hard to give each of them a distinct personality, battlefield role, and story. The first one might be a fallen angel. Battle brother sharing the Legion mission, if not gene-seed.

I have also been reading the forums a little bit. Trying to get my head around 6th ed and tweaks needed to my build plan.

AND the new White Dwarf was delivered yesterday. Well done Mikko for the nice Blanchitsu article. Looking forward to when the WD guys have the time to shoot and interview my long and often travelled gang ;) And who knows, maybe Legion ends up being the first Army scale project fitting for a Blanchitsu. A joint army of the month and Blanchitsu perhaps.

I am getting ahead of myself, but that is the best way to keep things moving at pace!

Leman Russ - The Executioner of Gryphonne

It was 1995 I believe. Almost twenty very long years ago. I had been in the hobby for a year or so. And White Dwarf 187 came out. With the biggest and baddest Tank Battle report the hobby had ever seen. Leman Russ Demolisher was released in this issue. It was simply the most badd-ass beast out there, but since I had just invested in to some Death Wing terminators I could not afford one.

The world has changed a lot since. The Hobby has grown into unimaginable heights. Games Workshop is a real company with capability to release stunning and endless stream of great miniatures. Games of 187 size are commonplace. I've grown up and realized many of my own dreams. Big and small.

This nostalgic prelude reminds me that I should write a listing of my top 10Hobby moments someday sooner than later. Epic White Dwarfs, most memorable tournaments, painting contests, or grand ideas. But today I wanted to briefly talk about the magic of those early days, the core crazyness of Warhammer 40000 that has not changed through the years and end with a picture of a Leman Russ.

A Leman Russ is still fundamentally the same design and even kit than twenty impossibly long years ago. It still doesn't look like it would work, the proportions are off, the tracks too weedy and the turret too small and the updated areas only make the original surfaces look even more original. Apart from the Eldar jetbikes perhaps, not much has survived unchanged from those days.

Deep within the streams of creativity and impulse to build and paint this particular Army is a very distinct 2nd edition flavor and dream to push the project to that magical place of childhood wonder and Blanchian purity of intent. So far it's been working. I have not had so much fun creating miniatures for an Army before. Nor have I ever been pleased with anything I've built and painted on such a lasting level. This is painfully emphasized by the utter lack of free time in my life these days. The investment into this little pocket of time and imagination is to say I don't do two or three other things I also really like.

So within this context. What does it mean to build units of Armor? Machines made of steel and ancient technologies. Forged in forgotten times in distant lands.

• each one is a "character" be it heroic or humble and ubiquitous 
• apart from how materials wear, realistic isn't the goal
• bright and graphic insignia
• lit by the twin moons of Rhisienne
• the guard tanks are a "squad" and the marine vehicles another one. 

Meet Colonel Vicer, and the Executioner. One of only three functional Executioner pattern Russes in the Rhisienne sector. The pride of Dead Sun division. Rhisienne PDF.

 

Post Scriptum:

I fumbled into an area of the blogger interface that keeps track of traffic and amount of followers. Guys, Thank you! I had no idea there were so many of you have not given up on this, despite having produced shit all 2013. Your support is a big inspiration.

Post Scriptum 2:

I found this very thorough and loving review of the said White Dwarf 187 from Dakkadakka! Youngster, check it out for how lucky you are with today's White Dwarfs and the terrific work Jes Bickham is doing. Oldsters, enjoy!