Cyber Slayer WIP. 'S' Word Mentioned...

Those pesky Tyranids, wiping out all those rugged Squats. As you know, I've always had a wee thing for the Space Dwarfs, and I'd made a ratling sniper into a Squat version of Telion to use in my force. I've even included fluff as to how this squat came into being with my Chapter, after an unknown planet being raided by Chaos Marines was spotted although was not known by records or by sensors and that the Squats there had built a cloaking device to hide them from sensors from unwanted attention. One of their kind had betrayed them, and they were beset by Chaos forces. Saved from a terrible fate, the Squats, and their knowledge of technology, were taken to Mars to share their knowledge with the Adeptus Mechanicus. Several of these however wished to fight with the Krohmus Guard, hence why I have an old Squat sniper leading my scouts in battle with his keen eye. 

Well, its time to welcome another of these into the fold. Its time to introduce, the Cyber Slayer.

This is only a work in progress, but he's built and undercoated ready for a few licks of paint. I've given him boots from an old Catachan Jungle Fighter, a Grav-pistol to help convey the idea that the Squats have a decent grasp of technology, and a Chainaxe from an old Khorne Bezerker I had lying around. The spikey bits on the axe have been trimmed off, and I'll possibly paint some checks on the now flat panels. You may also note he now has grenades hanging in his beard, the axes that were there would have looked a little too fantasy. The grenades were a pain in the arse to get in place and I'm still not happy with the one but with my giant beast paws its as good as I can get it. His history and name have not been decided upon yet, but I'll see what I can come up with. Stats wise, I'm thinking of using Space Marine Captain stats, maybe with the Teeth of Terra. We'll see anyways! More progress posts in the week

X-Wing, WIP Honour Guard and more

X-wing has taken up a good little roost in my large self, where myself and my nephew have had several games and really enjoyed it. So much so that he, and also Bam have ordered starter sets and will hopefully have sizeable Imperial fleets with which to crush me. Much thanks to Jason for getting us into this! 

I've got a nice little collection now, 2 X-wings, a B-wing and a Y-wing for the Rebels, and for the Imperials I have 3 Tie Fighters, one Tie Bomber and an Advanced Tie Fighter. This allows us to have some games with a bit of variety in and see what ships everyone likes. So far, I want more X-wings, although I'm slowly discovering just how good Ion Cannons are. 360 degree firing arc is very useful!

Ladies and Gents, this is Belle. It seems shes intrigued in X-wing too... although she was more interested in napping on the table. Gerrof Belle-end!

I'm still getting to grips with B-wings, but they do sponge up a lot of attention. My nephew tried the ships below against this with various character pilots, and I had trouble against him.

Tie fighters are just fast and their ability to evade can keep them alive more than their 3 hull points would suggest. Josh, my nephew quickly blew up an X-wing and from there numerical superiority won him the game. 

I dd cause a fair bit of damage, most of Josh's ships were damaged and close to being finished, but him having numbers made it hard concentrating fire as he dodged about the little bugger!

In the end I was wiped out. The Ties caught up behind me and just put the final nail in the coffin. Asteroids add a lot more to the game, and I think some of the damage to both sides was caused by flying into the rocks. No fun! I think it'd be cool if you got to roll a dodge dice too, just to add to suspense.  I think Josh is yet to get the best out of the Tie Bomber, judging when to use the bombs doesn't look easy so I dread to think how much more he'll kick my ass when he does learn to use them!

 Also, I took the plunge and decided to repaint an X-wing to see if I wanted to do the whole fleet. Its a WIP but I'm liking the orange and grey combo, and can see myself doing all my ships this way. I've ordered myself a few more ships too, 2 more X-wings and the Millenium Falcon, which I also plan on painting. I may got for something different on the Falcon though, as its a bounty hunter ship I think you can go a little more varied on the ship. Should be interesting to paint too! I've got these ordered in with Adam of Putrid Painting, there should be a link somewhere on this page as soon as I've figured out how to do it.

 Of course, I've been working on some Marines too, this time my Honour Guard. Built by kitbashing the Sternguard and Vanguard bits with a couple of others too, I really like how they've come out. They're not finished, but they're not table worthy and look from a few feet, which is important! More images when finished of these Krohmus Guard veterans.

I'm planning om doing a blog in the week too about the new White Dwarf and Warhammer: Visions. I've had my copies and I've a lot of mixed feelings, not just about the look and content but what it actually means by having this new format. I'm waiting til then as I'd like to get some feedback, so we'll see what the general consensus is before I go into it myself. Also....

Games Workshop have released some of the new Dwarf range, and the models look great. The Hammerers and Longbeards look great, although I'd hate having to paint them. This guy however, the Dragon Slayer, is quite possibly going to become one of my top ten favourite models of all time. I love the pose, and the detail in the face is just astounding. I'll be getting one either just to paint up or more like... Squat Cyber Slayer conversion! I'll hopefully be posting about a Necromunda inspired campaign I want to run at the Reavers soon, where I'll be giving members a lot of creative say as to what models/factions/gangs or anything that they want to use. Imagine a Cyber Slayer you can hire? I've already got some Cadians I've been working on I need to blog about and the idea behind the Necromunda campaign so expect plenty of blogs in the coming weeks!

Golden Daemon: Retro 2

Welcome to part two of my fresh series looking at some of the older Golden Daemon winners. This post is dedicated to war in all its glory... the Battle Scene. The battle scene should capture a moment in the heat of battle, comprise of interaction between the models and still be of an incredibly high standard.

This first look is at Matthew Parkes Gold entry which also won him the fabled Slayer Sword in 1995. What strkes me with this is how bright and well presented the piece is. The orky wooden outpost looks fatastic, the grots going about their business and the Runtherd starting to shout through a megaphone to get the attention. The Ork being shot by a lasgun shot still looks fantastic to this day, and is a lesson in interactivity. The other little details too, the rag over the missile launcher, little mushrooms dotted about and the grot revealing his derriere on the splattacannon all add to the overall scene that certainly helped it win the Slayer Sword.

This next piece was by Chris Blair in 1996, and depicts a scene froma gang war on Necromunda. Whats nice about this is the Technology versus Nature theme, with the Spyers and the Ratskins fighting it out for survival in the dumps.  The first thing that struck me was the size of the piece, and helps show that Necromunda is played on more than just one level. The models, from what my eyes see, have had little conversion work done, but still interact well. The little bits on the floor look great, especially the sewage coming from the old tank and help convey how gritty and grimy the underhive is, and is highly deserving of its first place.

The third and final piece I've chosen is this little beauty. Nigal Carman decided to depict the chaotic brawling of a Gorkamorka scrap, and promptly took away first place. Its jam packed with models and vehicles, even a deffkopta is flying in on the action. Like the the second entry, this represents what Gorkamorka was all about. Orks fighting, riding around in trukks, looking for scrap and generally being insane. The base is another example of theming, with a really awesome looking 'Gorkamorka' title and the scrap pattern around the rest of the base really sets the piece off and shows the character of the orks really well. 

Hope you enjoyed these, I shall return once again with some more examples of Golden Daemon goodness!

Slayer Sword Winner Speaks.

When news filtered through that Karol Rudyk, winner of this years UK Golden Daemon Slayer Sword, was selling his prize on ebay, a lot of different reactions flooded the internet. Some people were saddened, some indifferent, some hateful, some seemed to understand and said they would do the same if in Karol's shoes. The sword itself sold for $600 on Ebay (approx £375). I decided to look into this and was able to ask the man himself. 

"I tell you why I sold the sword. 6 years ago when I saw the Slayer Sword for first time it looked like this:

This was a beautifull, fully-functional weapon. And this was my dream to win this sword. You should know also I am sword collector and I have several unique swords like:
 

Glamdring museum collection.
Atlantean sword of albion from Connan movie .
Anduril limited edition,
Full-functional japanese katana.

And the next should be the Slayer Sword.

But when I saw the actual version of the Slayer Sword this was a sad time. This sword not look good even on wall. This is a shame that GW give the best artist so cheap shit. My sword look like ship Chinese version. They give me it in a box (shipping from China) and it looks very bed. Blade is a piece of sheet metal and you can see traces of the blade grinder.

So when I saw this I do not want this in my collection. Maybe in future I will try to buy old version. I talked about it with GW manager, but they prizes are more and more low -quality. So big company and so cheap prize. This is sad.

I hope now you understand my reasons. I don't need many but this sword does not fit my exclusive colection.

Regards,
Karol"

Does this change anyone's opinion? I understand with him, trying to win an esteemed prize not only for your painting abilities but for your collection, and after all the hard work it doesn't live up to expectations.

Thank you to Karol who took the time to get back to me, you can see much more of his work here on his facebook page.

Slayer Sword... for sale?

But theres only one. This years Slayer Sword winner has put the esteemed prized up for sale here on ebay.

Is this acceptable? Does it de-value the prize at all? Hopefully the artist himself will speak out and tell us why he is selling the Slayer Sword.