Apologies that I've missed the usual monthly update slot but it's been a bit hectic for me due to taking on the painting rankings and needing to get them up and running on the website (during which I discovered some bugs with the event listings code I got sidetracked into fixing).

So, what have I achieved since the last update? Well I have done some more work on my Swordmasters, mostly washes ahead of a final highlight of the metal. I now just need to remember the hair colour recipes so I can finish off & touch up before I consider the main part of the model done and get on to the bases.

On the gaming front I've dipped my toe into the world of Regiments of Renown, playing four games against one of the guys at the club. We used the scenarios from the Tale of Four Geeks version of the pack and I ended up winning 3-1, although my opponent was having atrocious dice to the point that I insisted he use mine midway through game three. All the games were High Elf vs High Elf, although I kept the same list through all four games while he changed his a couple of times. Probably the most memorable moment came in the third game with his leader, a Phoenix Guard champion, fighting off my leader (a Swordmaster champion), a White Lion and an Ellyrion Reaver until he failed his break test.

This week I got another game in with the Dragon list I've been running of late against (increasingly regular) club opponent Derek who had this time brought a Nurgle themed Warriors list. And not what you might expect to be in the list given that description. He had a Sorcerer Lord on foot with Lore of Nurgle in a block of 15 Chaos Warriors, an Exalted BSB on foot in a block of 29 Marauders, 8 Orges with Great Weapons, 8 Ogres with Additional Hand Weapons and finally two Giants. I squeaked out a win in the end but possibly only because we didn't have time to get turn six in. As it stood at the end I'd lost all my Reavers and Eagles, my Spearmen and Archers and a Skycutter while killed his Marauders, BSB, and the Great Weapon Orges. However, my Dragon Princes were in combat with one of the Giants which could have gone either way, despite the Nobles in the unit doing two wounds to it the turn it charged, and my Prince was in a challenge with his Sorcerer Lord who only took two wounds from Prince and Dragon combined (the Sorcerer, who was T6 W6 before the challenge thanks to the Nurgle Lore attribute kicking in a couple of times, saved 6 out of 6 Thunderstomps from the Dragon whcih I wasn't amused about) and was going to get the AHW Ogres in the flank if there had been a turn 6.

Other than the Warhammer, a couple of weeks ago I had my first game of "Sails of Glory" which long time Empire opponent Andy has currently branched out into. It's basically an Napoleonic era version of the X-Wing game that's quite popular at the moment. I carried on the tradition of Andy not having won any games against grown-ups (including his girlfriend).

Hi folks,

Bit of a later update than normal I'm afraid, mainly because after a bit of a break from the hobby side of things I was determined to have some photos to post up of what I've been working on (and then didn't get a chance to finish off what I was working on at home as quickly as I'd have liked which is why I'm only posting now).

Before I get onto the hobby bits, first off here's a very quick summary of the gaming. At the club since last time I've had a game of Triumph and Treachery which was as fun as it had sounded from all the podcasts I've listened to game coverage/descriptions on, plus a couple more games against, increasingly my only Warhammer opponent at the club Derek. In both games he was running essentially the same list, just with different Marks of Chaos on his Warriors army. The first game he was using Tzeentch and smashed me up quite a bit - a combination of a couple of bad decisions on my part and a failed charge at a crucial time which left my Prince and Dragon out in the open where he could cast Infernal Gateway on them and managed to blast them off in a turn (think they'd both taken a wound against a Giant earlier in the game). In the second game he was using Khorne which was basically just a gimmee as I was able to lead his units by the nose to where they were in the best places for me to charge in (I got a bit lucky with my Level 2 casting Fiery Convocation in turn 1 on his Marauder block and killed 19 out of 24, although from the miscast my Wizard lost all his levels), although the Warrior block took a fair bit of chewing through.

Finally (although actually the third game in the sequence) I played Nick with his Lizardmen (first time I'd played Lizards with the new book). Despite it supposedly being a no-filth game at 1200 points with no Lords Nick still brought a Stegadon and the result was my standard loss against the Lizards. Hopefully the rematch tomorrow night will go a bit better.

And on to the hobby.

At work I've carried on plugging away at the Swordmasters and have brought the models home today as barring a few checks to make sure I've shaded the cloth on some of them they're as done as they're going to get for the foreseeable future barring the bases.

The main thing I've done at home, other than some work building up the sand on the base of the Dragon, is converting up some more Ellyrian Reaver command. As those of you with long memories will recall, I've already converted one Ellyrian Reaver from my Island of Blood models to be a musician and I've done largely the same conversion again this time, although I've not chopped off the Reavers' spears yet or tried to stick the bits of a bow on to make it look like it's just tied up with their quivers. Need to decide whether I'm going to do this.

As before, I converted rank and file Reaver models to be musicians. What I've done in addition this time is to make up some standard bearers for the Reavers with the intent of taking at least two units of them with standards to Blood and Glory this year (funds, time and ability to get the models ready permitting). These I've converted from the champion models cutting off the sword and helmet wing thing.



Using some banners from a load of High Elf command bits I bought a while ago I've made myself three standard bearers as you can see in this picture.



The swords I chopped off came in handy for the new musicians as below.






My new command models in all their glory.



Of course, it's not just command I've been assembling but rank and file as well. Working on the further four sets of Reavers I bought from one of the bits websites I use a while back, I've got an additional fourteen rank and file models now (for a total of eighteen) and three sets of command.



I did have a few small issues assembling the models I set aside as rank and file, with some not fitting together terribly well (and in some cases part of the head piece that goes down into the torso had been clipped off which made sticking the head on a bit more tricky). On one model, and I'm not quite sure how it happened,I've ended up pushing right through the model's chest which is going to take a little bit of sorting out.





After a few minor repairs and some greenstuffing, and sanding the bases, I'm planning to get these guys undercoated and to start working on them at work which will mean I can hopefully sort out more on the Dragon at home.

Well that's another month that's flown by quickly.

Haven't got a massive amount of hobby done again, although I'm gearing up at the moment.

On the dragon I'm currently trying to make sure the bit of flex-o-metal I've stuck the to rider's saddle is down flat before I undercoat it (although I should probably look at getting the dragon rider magnetised before I worry about that).

I'm still trying to decide what colour primer to use, both on the dragon and all my models going forward. I've been using black since I started back in the hobby but thinking about how I've found painting on black, particularly with having to put a grey over cloth areas as a base, I can probably save myself a fair amount of painting time if I can switch to grey or white. I primed up some models over the weekend just gone in both grey and white. Unfortunately, I messed up a couple of the test Reaver models I did in white as I'm using Army Painter white primer and didn't spray close enough at first and so they've come out rather chalky (and so will definitely be in any very high points armies I use). My third stab at closer range came out better, although I managed to get a bit too much primer on it (and also overdid the back of the test Swordmaster I sprayed up). I didn't have the same problem with the grey primer (also Army Painter), although I found it a bit tricky figuring out which parts of the model had been undercoated when spraying.

So far with painting up the test models I'm leaning towards the grey as the long term option but will have to see what the final results look like.

Other hobby stuff... I've started seriously looking at possible lists for Blood and Glory this year, although I did my first complete list on the train then realised two hours later that I'd completely omitted the Book of Hoeth for the Loremaster of Hoeth I'm currently thinking of running, which wouldn't be a massive problem except for the fact that I've only got 5 point spare in the Lords section so I'm going to have to completely rethink the items (and possibly all my character choices)

Hi folks

With the progress I've made so far I've decided that with my Swordmasters and Ellyrian Reavers I'm going to undercoat in grey and just black out some of the scale mail sections where I want a black base and with some black to be visible at the end of things. To that end I undercoated all my Reavers and Swordmasters that were cleaned up over this weekend and have started work on blocking in the black paint of the Reavers (since I definitely need to get some of those prepped for the events I'm hoping to get to later this year).

For the dragon, based on the test paint jobs I did on some Saurus, I decided to go with white and also undercoated that this weekend. While I think I've managed to avoid most of the problems I've had with the Army Painter spray undercoat previously, tonight while painting the metal sections black I realised that I hadn't covered the edges of the wings and part of the undersides properly so I'm going to have to find time, when I get back from holiday, to undercoat those bits and not spray over anything I've since painted.

Speaking of holiday, I'm going off this weekend to the exotic climes of Yorkshire. I'm currently trying to figure out if there's anything I can pack away easily that I can take with me to work on in the evenings. I don't want to risk taking the Reavers so I'm leaning towards the Swordmasters if I take anything (as I can fit all the ones I'm currently working on into a small box).

After going to the special effort of doing a bit more undercoating on couple of models which I somehow managed not to get the elbows of, I started unpacking at the cottage and what did I find? Models? Yes. Paints? Yes. Water pot? Yes. Palette? No. Box of paintbrushes? No.

So basically I'm going to have to hope I pass by a game store or art shop in the next day or two if I'm too have any chance of getting some hobby for while I'm on holiday.

Well, in the end I managed to go past a Toy Master store on day during my holiday. They even had a very small selection of GW paints and brushes although I wasn't going to pay GW prices for a brush to do what I was wanting to. Fortunately there was a rack of Rexel modelling bits behind the GW rack so I picked up a brush from there for a quid. Not the greatest quality brush in the world but it was good enough for what I wanted it for and I managed to get the bulk of what I was planning to do done the following night.

Since getting back from holiday I've been working on my Dragon and Ellyrian Reavers. The Dragon is coming along quite nicely at the moment (see pictures below) although I'm yet to decide whether I am going to do an additional highlight on top of the washed wing membrane or not. I'm currently leaning towards not but I suspect I'll probably do a test on one of the undersides of the wings so even if I mess things up and have to redo it shouldn't be too obvious.













The Reavers (sorry folks, no new pictures of them) feel like they're progressing more slowly, in part because I'm painting them during lunch at work and am only getting around half an hour in on them a day. Obviously the fact that there's more of them and I'm trying to keep the painting done to the same stage on each doesn't help. Annoyingly I've now managed to break the second banner off one of my converted standard bearers, although it's possibly my fault for having brought two to work to paint due to how I have to store them when I'm not painting. Hopefully I can do a reasonable repair job when I get these back home.
I also need to remember to dig two Reavers and my Prince for the Dragon out of the tub I left them in to soak in Simple Green a week or so before I went on holiday and to figure out what I'm doing with the Reaver who had the push through his torso (some sort of convincing war wound perhaps)

Once I've got through all that, thanks to some ebay purchases I made while on holiday, I've got another batch of Sword Maters to clean up and add to the painting pile, plus another dragon that was going cheap. Unfortunately I was a bit annoyed about that one as it was advertised as partially built when in fact partially broken would have been a better description as it appears that it had been assembled at one point but the wings have been broken off (the pegs to guide them into the holes in the body are snapped) and the throne back is coming off. (If pushed I'd hazard a guess that it had been dropped at some point). I think even with my modelling skills it should be repairable, although hopefully I'll get round to sorting this one out a lot quicker than I did my other dragon.

Yesterday I got to finish early at work so I decided to pop into Warhammer World on my way home to have a look round the miniatures hall. Unfortunately, most of the models I was really wanting to get a look at (i.e. the new stuff from the HE army book) wasn't in the cabinets, with the usual "These minis are out on campaign...." sign in the cabinet. (Same went for the Warriors). There was a lack of newer units on show in the Dark Elf and Wood Elf displays - I think the DE only had Doomfire Warlocks of the new stuff out while there weren't any new Wood Elf units at all that I could spot. There were a few new models in the Lizarrdmen display (along with the Dread Saurian - didn't realise just how big that was until I saw it in the flesh) and there was a gyrobomber in the Dwarf cabinet.

As with last time I went, getting a decent photo was made trickier by the lighting in the room - too low to use a low ISO setting on my camera as I'm hand-holding it (although given that I was the only one there I could have taken my tripod without getting in anyone's way), meaning there's a bit of noise in pictures, and the spotlights they do have create nasty reflections that you can't completely work around.

While I'm not that interested in 40k, I did take a couple of pictures, including of some of the Primarch models from the Horus Heresy stuff. It was even trickier trying to photograph these as they were on rotating stands...

High Elf Archmage on dragon


High Elf Prince on dragon



Magma dragon


Luminark of Hysh


Light Wizard on Luminark


Archer Lector on War Altar


Arachnarok crew


Arachnarok


Dread Saurian


Dread Saurian


Canosaur


Eldar Avatar


Horus

Hi folks

Just about that time (ok, slightly later) again. Unfortunately haven't had time to take any photos for this update, so text only I'm afraid.

I'm still plugging away on the Dragon and Ellyrian Reavers (and still haven't got round to sorting out the problem Reaver). I've had to do another wash on the underside of the dragon as when I looked at it again I didn't feel there was enough definition showing. Having said that, I think I'm definitely going to have to do a highlight on the raised areas with the base colour I washed over and possibly lighter colour as well, which will more than likely mean I'll definitely have to consider doing a highlight on the wings as well so it doesn't look odd.

On the Reavers I've been painting the horses and some of the cloth - although I realised last night that I'd got the light and dark blues I've been using the wrong way round compared to first five Reavers I painted so I've had to start redoing those so its consistent.

Aside from Dragon and Reavers I've also been doing some more work on one of my batches of Swordmasters, bringing their bases up to the same standard as the Reavers. Alas that also reminded me that I need to update another couple of batches of Swordmasters as well as the large lot Archers I'd got to a certain point earlier this year. Fortunately it's just drybrushing needing doing so it's a comparatively quick stage (just as well considering how many models I need to do).

Aside from painting I've finally got hold of cloaks for the Sisters of Avelorn I bought bits for a couple of months ago so I can assemble them (if I find the time...). I've worked out that it would probably have cost exactly the same (or even been a little bit cheaper) for me to buy a box from my local independent store and then I could have just sourced cloaks, legs and bases to have 10 Shadow Warriors as well.

Gaming wise I've managed to get three games in (would've been four but my opponent at the club didn't turn up one week. Wouldn't have minded so much if he'd actually bothered to let me know he couldn't make it for whatever reason). One 1200 points against Lizards which was yet another loss against Lustria's finest, not helped by the usual problems of trying to kill Scar Vets, plus a new encounter with 2+ save Skink Chief on Terradon which emphasised just how much of a joke Sisters of Avelorn not being skirmishers or having a musician is as I had said Skink Chief hopping behind a unit of them. They couldn't swift reform to face the Chief and Soot him and likewise they couldn't just turn around as they're not skirmishers.

The other two games were 2400 points and a loss and a win with my tweaked dragon list (although the tweak is essentially putting the armour piercing banner on the Dragon Princes instead of the terror banner and giving the Prince a great weapon and the Star Lance). The loss was against Dogs of War and was a small loss although I would probably have done a bit better if I hadn't had half the unit of Dragon Princes Dwellers'd off first turn and if mid game I hadn't sent my Prince left to take on the unit of Venatrors fighting the Dragon Princes instead of right to take on the Paymaster's Bodyguard (although the Bodyguard are stubborn I should have been able to generate enough combat res out of them with the Dragon to break the Venators).

Last game was against Warriors and for the most part I think I played it pretty well. As he was running three blocks (2 Warriors, 1 Marauders), and some Trolls, plus a Chaos Lord, Exalted BSB and L2 Sorcerer, with Tzeentch being predominant (althougjh the Marauders were Khorne with flails), I made use of terrain to try and pick off units one by one, as well as throwing Eagles and Reavers in front of the block containing the Sorcerer when I could to stop his unit turning to face towards the Dragon and hitting me with Bolt of Change and Infernal Gateway. (Of course, he could have just reformed but for some reason he kept taking the bait). It didn't help that I managed to kill five Dragon Princes with a miscast in my first magic phase which left the initial charge on the Marauders potentially a little shaky and I couldn't grind out the trolls a few turns later when I had to let them charge me - the Dragon Princes ended up ground out with just the characters still fighting the last Troll at the end of the game. The Prince and the Dragon Princes had wiped out one of the Chaos Warrior units but the Prince ended up having to charge the other Chaos Warrior unit with just a Lion Chariot in support (I had hoped the Dragon Princes would be able to take the last wounds off the Trolls or break them to be able to join the combat). In the end I got his general in the challenge with the Prince but it took a couple of turns and my general broke in the last turn of the game. Fortunately the Chaos Warriors, who'd killed the supporting chariot, failed to catch the dragon so overall I just edged a very small win.

In other news, much to my annoyance, I won't be able to go to this year's Raze and Ruin, which was the one event I was definitely planning to make. Turns out my mum has booked herself on a day out on the Saturday so I've no-one to look after my daughter that day. I'm doubly gutted because I obviously want to support my local tournament.

Hi folks

No, I haven't dropped off the face of the earth, just couldn't seem to find time and/or motivation to sit down and write a new entry.

To be honest it's pretty much business as usual. I've been plugging away on the Reavers and getting little bits done on the dragon. As I don't want to risk doing any more damage to the Reavers transporting them to and from home I've been working on I've been managing to make some reasonable progress on the new batch of Swordmasters at work.

Having managed to get myself a ticket to this year's Blood and Glory I'm currently working through potential lists to take. Unfortunately what I'd take in an ideal world is a lot different than what I own, never mind what I have painted. Ideally I was wanting to run three units of Reavers but looking at how much still needs doing to the ones I'm working on I may have to make do with one, and i still need to fix the banners back on (need to figure out whether I can pin them or not).

Well that's all for now. Hopefully the next update well be a bit sooner