Death By Video

Welcome all! I've been a little quiet again, but its because I've been working on a few things..... 

Death By Die is going video! I'll still be posting here, espcially with the new Ork releases coming but expect videos once a week  maybe more when I get into the swing of it! All subscriptions are massively appreciated, if you have ideas for videos or questions for a Q&A then fire away!

Magore's Fiends Showcase

Its been a little while since I've posted, although thats probably the most common introduction I produce on the blog. But, bear with me for it is a good thing. Almost two months ago I decided to paint, challenging myself to get better. You've seen my stuff before, it was alright, but I think I've improved. So much so that I've grabbed up all the Shadespire I could and got to painting it.

So here to begin with, I present the recently released Magore's Fiends.

While I'm still not steeped in the lore of Age of Sigmar theres no doubting the models for AoS and Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire are absolutely beautiful. I enjoyed painting these as I love painting red, still working on blending and building up layers but its looking quite effective. 

Being a Khorne Daemon army player (well sorta, not played with them much as they're under reconstruction) but this is the first Flesh Hound I've painted and I need to do more. Riptooth is a good boy!

So there we have Magore's Fiends. I've also got the Farstriders coming in a post soon along with the other warbands I've painted, of which there are another 3. Like I said, I've really enjoyed painting them! I have also started to take on commissions so if you have anything you'd like painted to a good standard for use on the table please get in touch on my Facebook page where I can answer all of your questions or you can just keep track of blog updates. Thanks for looking, more soon! 

No seriously this time.

Honest....

Review: WD January

So 2018's first post a review of Januarys edition of White Dwarf, the Games Workshop publication. Manby of you GW fans will no doubt have seen the Nurgle miniatures coming soon and White Dwarf offers a great look into them. So here we go!

The cover has this great art from the AOS Battletome: Daemons on it, the Lord of Blight taking centre stage. The new model looks great and can see how inspired it is by a certain other Nurgle model thats been converted and painted so many times yet each time I see it, it looks so different.

Amongh the Nurgle releases is this boxed game from Devil Pig Games, Heroes of Black Reach. Its a hard card version of 40k by the seems and is quick an deasy to get into with games only taking 30 mins or so. It looks quiet fun and will be a tempter!

An interview with Black Library legend, Dan Abnett. I've read a few of his books and hes certainly one of the best writers of 40k lore, Unremembered Empire was a personal favourite. 

Designers notes about the new look Nurgle Daemons, this is a really interesting read from the conception by John Blanche of the aesthetics of the original Gods to how they still contain those key elements. Those Great Unclean Ones are incredible and the Nurglings... well they are so small but have so much character. Also Nurgley is a battle report between Nurgle Daemons and Fyreslayers, haven't read through this yet but going from the points its a reasonably close game and the photos look great. 

An article on making Tau terrain and its really interesting to see how Dan Harden tackled creating it from Tau spare bits and the look is amazingly good. Who knew a water tank would look so damn good built by the Tau?

If you think that photo looks incredible of Iain Gonzalez wait til you see the full spread. A great collecting article looking at the gentlemans Ork army and it looks flat out (coz its red boss) and is inspiring me as I may be getting some orks to paint up soon!

A Blood Bowl article is also featured looking at some of the teams created by GW staff, Louise Sugdens goblin team I've drooled over on Instagram they're so well painted. Good to see some colour schemes for several teams here!

Among the readers models this month is this sick looking Cor'Bax Utterblight by Yann Taniou. I've seen this model a couple of times on some youtube battle reports and it looks so good, its different from a lot of other Nurgle Daemons but is still unmistakenably Nurgle. 

I had to include the back cover too, it shows off the size of those Great Unclean Ones so well next to Nagash and I can't wait to hear how they do battles.

Other articles I didn't cover was some lore on the Malign Portents, guides to Death in AoS and Orks in 40k, a miniatures review of the year, an AoS Tale of Four Warlords, some new armies for 40k by staff, plus some scenarios for Necromunda, Hobbit, and Warhammer Quest. 

So far its been a great iussue and start to the year and I've still got some left to read. Codex Daemons is going to be the one thing I definately pick up from this months issue and I can make a start on my Khorne Daemons reworking that I need to do. If you're reading this hoping for some sneak peeks at rules then I haven't delved into it enough for that, you will have to get this issue for yourself!

All in all a fantastic start to the year. I've literally today subscribed to Warhammer TV's twitch and can't wait to get stuck into the bakc catalogue of things to watch, mention going to Painting with Duncan and Peachy which is live tonight in half hour at 6pm (UK time). 

Hope you've all had a good Xmas and New Years! If you have projects you'd like featured why not get in touch? Heres to 2018!

Many Moons Have Passed....

Well its been a while hasn't it? Probably not far off a year to be honest since I've posted on this glorious blog. Well, this time I won't be making promises to keep posting regular, as its not worked for me before. But there is hope I will! So far 2017 has been good gaming wise, and it follows a strong 2016. The Gwent Reavers, the gaming club I am part of, has had a good time with gaming and it looks to continue. Many board games have been played, 40k once again is being played, Age of Sigmar is picking up some serous momentum with members and other new games are taking root like Blood Bowl an Tanks.

We've had some new members too which is great, fresh blood is always good to sacrifice in the name of the blood god! Lewis and Adam are both in a similar spot where they've always been interested in the hobby but its only now they're starting to get stuck in and its great to see the enthusiasm. Another new member Patrick is also incredibly enthusiastic about his Necrons and its good to see some 40k kicking of again. I need to get my Genestealer Cult painted up and my Space Marines are also itching for some games... perhaps the setting of Fall of Cadia will be a good place to shoot some bolters and launch some assaults. 

As I mentioned Age of Sigmar is taking off at club although I'm the least enthusiastic about it seeming as I annot get any luck when playing! I've got Khorne Daemons, and heres how the blood thirter looks so far having started painting him yesterday. Trying to get a bit of a blend on the wings, shall be going over it with a wash and seeing how it looks 

If theres something that has got everyones attention at club, its the old faithful roleplaying game, Dungeons and Dragons. We currently have three different sessions at club with various dungeon masters and players, and every session is going well. I'm currently running Out of the Abyss, which is set in the Underdark. The story so far has been a little of my own creation, where a Derro called Buppido, who is in the book and is convinced he is an insane god of murder has killed a couple of the parties allies and they've gone to chase him down. I'll report more on this in another post as theres a lot to speak of! 

Something I've been working on occasionally over the last year is a small warband for an Inquisitor 28 style idea. Blanchitsu is one of my favourite parts of White Dwarf and above is a picture of two models I've melded together. .A large gun servitor on the left, and an adeptus mechanicus chef on the right, complete with power spatula, krootox burgers and some kind of sausage. Green stuff chefs hat too which I was proud of! I'm looking to add more when I can and get some interesting bits to play with.

Over Xmas club stalwart Morg picked up Scythe and its a really interesting game. I find the larger games a bit intimidating to play and really need to get myself in the mood to play them, but from what I have played its a really good game. Some interesting mechanics, a theme thats not in your face and done well with some really nice looking components and a rules system thats not too complicated. The amount of components are scary mind, but persevere theres a good game there!

Higgy and Jay had a large game of Tanks recently too, playing up the board starting off with a beach landing making their way into a town. If you've not played think X-Wing with a simpler system, much cheaper models but still looks really good, the boys are well into it and we're hoping to host a Tanks tournament at the end of February. 

In the future we have possible trips to Warhammer Fest, the UK Games Expo, events we'd like to host too along with many other things. I haven't even spoken about Blood Bowl yet and my Skaven team.

Like I said, no promises about lots of posts, but this is a start and we'll see how it goes!

Chaos Lives! Chaos Lord and Hellbrute updates

Its not very often the forces of Chaos get a dedicated post on Death By Die... but today they have found their way in. At our gaming club, the Gwent Reavers we chatted about the expense of the hobby and perhaps if we had a small collection of 40k things here people could at least try before they buy. Thinking further about it, I realised that I had a small Chaos force. Very small. But its something. With the Assassinorum boxed set giving me 15 cultists, a Chaos Lord and 3 Chaos Marines along with the the 6 beastly based Chaos Marines I modelled a while ago, it was a start. I'd also won a Hellbrute a couple of years ago in a little competition held by friend Adam, where he gave it away on his old Nurgles Command video. 

Out came the glue and paint! What you see below are what I've done so far, along with other things its not much but the Chaos Lord looks pretty good and I'm happy with the colour scheme. Its Thunderhawk Blue highlighted with Lothern blue, which I'd previously used on my Millenium Falcon(more of that soon).

 I'm especially happy with how his cloak came out, I think the green tones look nice and compliment the blue pretty well.

 And heres the Hellbrute! Same colour scheme, and I went with a very brown skin as it would work against the blue by being a little warmer in colour and the pipes, exhausts and bones would contrast the browns too. Note the added Imperial Fist helmet, which, somehow innocently, is Bams chosen army... coincidences heh?

Mikes also brought over his Tzeetch Thousand Sons army over for me to scavange from, a lot of work needs to be done on some of the models but the Chaos Terminators and Lord look very usable, as well as a few other bits. Its coming along slowly! Some of the models won't look that great but if it means the club has an army then its all good. 

Now a little chat about the new Chaos Terrain for Age of Sigmar. To make up the whole thing its £600+. Wowsers, thats a lot of pennies! It does look spectacular though, and I think some of the smaller packages are pretty good too in terms of visuality. I did wonder how it would look for other Chaos forces though....

And I'm really digging it in blue! I've changed the saturation in photoshop to what Tzeentch and Nurgle fortresses may look and I think the blue one stands out really well. I think perhaps some Tomb Kings accessories would help give it a more Tzeentch flavour, and for nurgle lots of ooze, lots of browns on there too. Be interesting to see how people paint theirs when its released.

Theres also rumours of a september release for a new Chaos Codex for 40k, along with a new Daemon Engine. What could it be? Who knows, a Chaos sized Knight titan would be good thats not Forge World, but I'm expecting something a little different. Who knows! What do you think will be new in the Chaos Codex?