Yesteryear's Production (Architecture of Aggression LVXIIwhatever)

I've been thinking about my almost complete lack of blogging last year lately. It seemed like I got nothing hobby-related done, but then I sorted through the "Camera Uploads" folder in my Dropbox and discovered quite a few WIP pics...

2018 did start slow. All I really did for January and February was to pop the right arms off my Chaos Bikers, magnetise them and add a set of Chainsword arms to the Bolt Pistol ones I already had. I remember several evenings of carefully cutting the swords off of the left arms they typically come on and gluing them onto right-handed Bolt Pistol arms.

It wasn't until May that I picked the knife and glue up again. I'd had my eye on the Wrathmongers/SkullReapers kit for a while, to replace the Bloodbound Blood Warriors I had used as Possessed with something more fitting. I included a Slaughterpriest model from an older White Dwarf as the unit champion, and stretched the kit a little with a pair of legs from an even older Possessed kit to bring the unit to seven models in total.

While I was collecting the models and bits I needed to build the Possessed, I came across several forgotten Raptors/Warp Talons kits. I built around twenty Raptors and ten Warp Talons in-between painting the Possessed, and drybrushed them up to my pre-ink stage after the Possessed were finished. They've since been sitting in a box since, but I'm currently in the process of adding Red Ink hoping to get them on the table soon('ish).

After having played several games with Missile Launchers on my Havocs, I decided I wanted them to have a little more 'Punch'. At the time, Lascannons cost the same number of points so I ordered an upgrade set from Forge World and re-purposed some leftover Chaos Space Marines. I also built a set of Havocs armed with Autocannons, but haven't found cause to finish those - yet.

Over the summer holiday in August, and into September, I had lots of fun building several of the new Sector Administratum ruins. I started with the ones from the Kill Team box but soon added a couple more, along with a few from the Sector Mechanicus series. I still have to mount the ruins on bases but hope to start painting these up once the temperature outside rise to the point where I can spray-paint. Seeing Ørn's ruins from a few months ago prompted me to cut and start preparing the bases, at least.

In September I added three squads of Cultists with Autoguns to my army, to be able to split my force into two Battalion Detachments. I would have added more if only the models hadn't gotten so hard/expensive to get ahold of by then.

I built and drybrushed a couple of Sorcerers with Jump Packs in October, and followed those up with adding a few Aspiring Champions and weapon specialists to the Raptors they're meant to support.

November saw me assembling three boxes of Munitorum Armoured Containers and lots of Plasma/Promethium Pipes, to add to the pile of unpainted terrain. I may still add a couple Sector Mechanicus kits, but then I should probably call it quits and actually start painting what I've got. I have a couple of ideas about magnetising the pipes, though, but I'm not sure how much work it's worth putting into it...

The Blackstone Fortress set, which you've already seen here, kept me occupied in-between Christmas-related activities during November, December and January.

All in all, it seems, 2018 wasn't as 'dead' a year as I thought when I started writing this. I just failed completely regarding write-ups here.

Blackstone Fortess - the Antagonists

Welcome back!

For the second BSF-article we'll be going over the models that will be 'getting in your characters' way' when playing the game. Being able to alternate between protagonist and antagonist models, as I worked through the pile of models in the set, really helped with keeping the pace up until the end.

Spindle Drones

Ur-ghuls

Negavolt Cultists

Traitor Guardsmen

Rogue Psykers

Beastmen

Chaos Space Marines

Chaos Lord Obsidius Mallex

Next? I suppose I'll have to get The Dreaded Ambull when i comes out, but I hope we can manage to try the game out before then too... I've been looking over the rules (Insert playing-with-myself-jokes here.) and think the game would be the most fun with a group of four gamers and a 'GM'.

In the mean time, I have a batch of the new ruins and a sizeable number of Word Bearers models in progress too...


J

Blackstone Fortess - the Protagonists

Hi all...

Long time no see. 2018 turned out to be my least productive year here since the inception, more that... whoa! ...ten years ago now. Seems I didn't even catch/mark the anniversary last spring... (There are reasons, but they're far from hobby-related so let's skip those and focus on some actual painted miniatures instead!)

A couple of months ago, I picked up GW's latest board game "Warhammer Quest: Blackstone Fortress" as an early christmas/birthday present for myself. I put all the miniatures together over a couple of evenings, and have had a few at a time 'on the got' up until last weekend.

In other words: It's time for a comeback on the blog, with a couple of articles showing off my efforts.

Janus Draik

Espern Locarno

Taddeus the Purifier

Pious Vorne

UR-025

Rein and Raus

Grekh

Amallyn Shadowguide

Come back next week, for a look at the antagonists...


JørnN

Jørn's 2017 in review

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned.

It's been more than eight months since my last confession, and I can't even claim it's because I've been busy building and painting. Well... Not miniatures, anyway.

I have managed to get a couple of games in a month, on average, since we came back from Adepticon, so I’ve come far closer to my goal of 40 games of 40K a year this year than in the past two.

I have managed to build and prepare a few models for paint this fall, and really want to get a start on some of those soon...

So what's kept me from making any hobby-progress wort posting about? A couple of factors seems to have kept my 'hobby engine' in idle. First, the build-up and preparations to Adepticon were pretty intense, leaving me a little burned out. Second, the announcement of 40K 8th put a stop to pretty much all plans made with a 7th ed. perspective. When 8th did arrive, and we actually got around to rolling dice again, playing with units that were ready to go took priority over getting new ones on the table.

Revisiting Adepticon 2017 for a moment... It was an absolute blast of an event!!! It takes an investment of a full week off work and a lot of disposable income to make it happen, but if you can make that investment it’s an experience quite unlike anything we’ve found on this side of the Pond. We're not going back in 2018, but we will probably make the pilgrimage again at a future date. In the meantime, we'll see about getting to a few events in Europe this year. It's been a while since we went to Nottingham last. We do love team- and doubles-events so any tips regarding anything like that would be very welcome...

I set myself a couple of rather open-ended goals last year, yet I only managed to complete one: Getting my Crimson Fists army ready for the Team Tournament and the Long War Doubles at Adepticon. The Word Bearers never got much attention, apart from being the only army I've played with after 8th ed. was released. The rapid rules-changes/-updates since 8th's release have been a significant factor here. Hopefully, we won't see too many too radical changes going forward. Keeping up with the rules team does take both time and effort.

Goals for 2018 then...

1) Make significant progress on my Word Bearers.
I have... let's just say "a lot" of infantry models ready for paint. I really should get them finished and onto the tabletop. I also have a handful of vehicles that have been built but unprimed since last year (or something), as well as the Superheavy I bought at Adepticon. These need to be made ready and put on the table this year too.

2) Set up, name and host a TSB-event in my new hobby room.
We ‘just’ need to finalize remodelling of the new house, to free the room from its current use. To be continued, I suppose...


JørnN

Jørn's Adepticon 2017 picture-dump

It's been a week... The withdrawal symptoms are a little less acute now.
I guess it's about time I got around to dumping 'a few' pictures...

First, a few random armies ready for the 40K Championship:

...and a few more, in the midst of battle:

Leaving Trond to play in the Champoinship, the rest of us came across a big table in the back of the hall, with a truly epic number of Titans. Stock, converted and scratch-built.

On Thursday, Trond and Ørnulf played in the 40K Friendly while Inger Helene and I played in the Long War Doubles. I didn't get the chance to take any pictures from the former, but we have these from the latter:

As Saturday came around, so too did our 'Main Event'. The 40K Team Tounament kicked off with two great games the from Model Citizens team. Regrettably, this is the only game that day I had the presence of mind to actually take pictures of:

For our first game on Sunday, we had the honour and great pleasure to be invited to play the streamed game on Warhammer TV. Added levels of stress??? Whatever do you mean? It was really nice to be able to have a peek 'behind the curtains' of the show.

The last game of the day (...as well as the tournament and the con, actually) was no less fun, though. A gloriously golden Bender-bot Necron army with a really fun bunch of guys rolling the dice.

...and with those, I just want to say thank you to all of our wonderful opponents and to all the other wonderful people we got to get to know - not to forget our friends from previous trips that we got to meet again. We're sure to be coming back to Adepticon again! Maybe next year, maybe in a few... We'll have to see...

For now, we just need to get our painting stations set back up and get on with the next project.


JørnN