Tau Empire: Crisis Bodyguards

Afternoon guys and girls,

I'm back after a prolonged absence, work has finally settled down and I have some free time again and the energy to hobby.

Today we have 2 Crisis Battlesuit body guards:

These guys have some subtle differences from the standard suits. I've added cut down broadside battlesuit shoulder pads to their left arms. This is to mimic fire warriors but also make them different to the normal suits. I've also sculpted my armies Sept symbol onto their right shoulder pads. The fore arms are from one of the FW variants and the weapons themselves are magnetized so I have some flexibility with them.

I'm going to have a break from battlesuits for a while now so expect to see some infinity, deadzone and antares stuff before long.

Tau Empire: Crisis Battle suit squad 2

Afternoon guys and girls,

Small update for you today. I've been busy working away on the 2nd Crisis suit squad for the tau over the course of the past few months. Painting time is rather limited of late as I'm working 6 day weeks and I'm often too tired of a night to really focus on doing much :(

Anyway onto pictures:

Although they take an absolute age to paint I do get a rather accomplished sort of feeling when I see the whole squad done and out together. I still need to sort out drones for both these guys and the first squad I did.

New in the line Crisis suit wise are 2 bodyguards and the commander. The commander has been worked on since the finecast version first launched.......yes I'm slow.



On the work bench currently is this beast, who I have had for 2 years now. I finished sorting out the magnets in his arms and on the guns last night so I can crack on with getting the rest of him painted.

Anyway thats it for now, I shall be back next weekend hopefully with some progress on the R'Varna

Beyond the Gates of Antares: Concord

Afternoon guys and girls,

Time for another update, this time with something completely new.

Recently Nife has had all of my Horus Heresy stuff off me, after ages of trying to get fired up to paint the word bearers I finally threw the towel in. I just can't get excited about painting the stuff for it. So for once I will actually be sitting out of a project the rest of the Irregulars are working on.

Needless to say to celebrate clearing out a bunch of models I bought more.......

I have had my eye on The Beyond the Gates of Antares stuff for a while and with space freed up I took the plunge and bought the starter set. I find my interest in 40K as mentioned many times on here before to be very low so the more high sci fi look of Antares does appeal quite a lot.

So here are the first 3 Concord Strike Troopers:

I have had a lot of fun with these and have tried to weather them up quite a bit. I still have another 2 and a spotter drone to do to finish this squad. And a further 15 to finish up their half of the starter box.

I already have my eye on a few concord bits to expand the starter set but for once I will attempt to get the starter set painted before adding in anymore.

Tau Empire: Vespid Stingwings

Evening guys and girls,

First of all thanks for all the feedback on my previous post, I think in my time blogging only the Sons of Sek I made years back have proved more popular :)

Quick mid week update her, I recently picked up a set of finecast Stingwings to add to my Tau for a little variety. Being Finecast I've had a bit of a crack at re-positioning them:

I've heated their legs and wings up with boiling water to try and get some more dynamic poses. They are on 30mm bases too as the standard 25mm ones just seemed too small. I've enjoyed these so much I'm considering getting another set to add to them.

They may not be massively good in  game but as ever the rule of cool wins out with me.

In other news I've had the below turn up over the past few days:

At the suggestion of word bearer I picked up a set of sicarians, and to feed my addiction to concept art books I picked up the ones for mad max and the force awakens.

Theres already a few things I'd like to use for inspiration from them such as the sketches of the knights of Ren and the concept art for Immortan Joe from mad max.

I'm beginning to mull over returning to The Ammobunker to chart the slaaneshii warband but given my notoriously short attention span I'm not sure it would be worth it.....

INQ28: Slaaneshii Dark Mechanicus WiPS

Evening guys and girls,

Apologies for my prolonged absence in between being busy and not really having much to post I have neglected this place.

The sculpting muse has returned to me a bit of late and I've been able to do a little work on a few bits. 

The INQ28 muse has also returned some what which has let me do some work on one of my more recent ideas which was a dark mechanicus warband. Some of you will remember the gluttony inspired Magos I was working on before, He is still on going, I have however been working on a sidekick for him:

She is rather WiP still and one of the more involved conversions I have attempted in quite a while. concept wise she was inspired by this artwork:

Concept wise she is more of the traditional Slaanesh as seduction/perfection. The open robes will show glimpse of her mechanical torso so polished silver. So where as a human servant of Slaanesh may show off  sculpted muscles and the perfect body she will instead be showing off master crafted bionics.

Her head is actually a face stapled on top of her bionics that will be painted quite pale, She has a neuro toxin gauntlet on her one arm and I need to sort out a weapon for the topp of the staff. The snake itself will be cut off and used on the model as a mechanical pet.

I plan on adding a small servo arm to her and a bit more slaaneshii bling and artifice. A lot of the them will likely come over more in the paint job.

I'm rather proud of her but I feel a bit rusty sculpting wise so theres some areas that will need a second pass.

I'm currently planning out some minions to accompany her and the magos. Likely some skitarii types and such. I'm open to any suggestions so feel free to fire away.

Thats it for now, I shall hopefully be back next week :)

Tau Empire - Fire Warrior Breachers

Good morning guys and girls,

quick fire update for you today, I have finally finished the squad of breachers. Been working on these on and off since they were released so shows how slow I am...

Next up Tau wise will be another squad of 3 crisis suits, they may well be a few weeks out yet so I will have some other bits and pieces to show during that time.

I'll be at the Horus Heresy weekender in just over a weeks time too  along with fellow irregulars Rictus, Nife and Grizz. For once I actually don't plan on picking up anything bar some Heavy gun drones... yes Tau at a heresy even how strange haha.

Blast from the Past: Ad Mech

Evening Guys and Girls,


Bit of a retro post for you tonight, as I mentioned before I have been having quite a large clear out of hobby related things. In the bottom of one of the boxes I found an old little warband that I thought some of you may like to see:

These are old now scarily old when I think about it. I first made these for the Ammobunkers Gamesday participation game in what has to be 2008.... It was a zombie kill team game with small warbands attempting to escape a world where the ad mech have accidentally released a virus. Was a great little concept and marked my first time helping out at a Games Day participation game.

These guys were made in the infancy of my journey into sculpting so to my older and wiser eyes look incredibly crude.

The basic skitarii are all based around Empire flagellent and cadian parts with heavy GS modification

The Magos is based around a cadian, I remember sculpting those mechadendrites now they are the stuff of nightmares. He has hands off a marine and a shoddy attempt at sculpting a bionic leg.

I may well have to try make an updated version of this warband for a bit of a challenge, would be interesting to see how 8 years of additional hobbying experience would look compared to these.

Anyway thats it for now, I'll be back over the weekend 

The fleeting muse:INQ28

Morning guys and girls,

Have more of a reflective post today. I've been busy the past few weekends sorting though the back catalogue of armies and bits and having a mass cut back. Some of this has gone to good causes such as that fiendish Dane Rasmus. Others have gone to model heaven also known as the bin.

Amongst the things I have been sorting I have found my inq28 stuff. These have languished for months as the sculpting muse has all but left me.

Underhive scum, Crime boss, Bounty hunter.

I had a brief return to form and productivity with Frostgrave. But of late I have been more at home simply painting.

I often look on blogs such as the Convertorum, Ex Profundis and forums like the ammobunker and see all the fantastic work going on. It will give me the urge to make something but its quickly dissipates.

I don't think I have the imagination or connection as much these days with the whole grim dark universe. Maybe its too long getting more involved in high sci-fi stuff like infinity or deadzone or maybe its me working on the again high scifi looking Tau for so long.

Either way the muse seems to have left me and I can do no more than look on the great work going on enviously knowing that the minute I attempt to make something I hit the brick wall.

Gene enhanced Guardsman, Inquisitor, Interrogator 

Chaos Magister

You will see form the pictures of old models I have put up just how close they all are to completion, but I just can't get them done. My guess is they will have to languish in model purgatory for a fair while longer...


Rather negative post I know  but its a topic that has been in my head for a while.

On a more positive note, with some Christmas money and a voucher given to me by Nife and his other half I made my first purchase of 2016:

bets on how long it will take me to finish, personally I'm thinking at least 6 months.........

Tau Empire - Fire Warriors

Evening guys and girls,

Update time again, been working away on batches of Fire Warriors of late. I have very nearly finished a squad of 10 Breachers from the newest codex, but today I have a squad of standard Fire Warriors to show:

This is my 3rd completed squad of Fire Warriors, and they are still some of my favourite sculpts by GW. I still have 1 box of the 12 man fire warrior team stashed away for future use, I think it was a bad idea on GWs part to put the new box out with 2 less troopers and then hike the cost massively but ill go into that more when I post the breachers up......

Anyway that's it for this rather quick update, I shall likely be back during the week with a small update.

Happy New Year and a Cadre Fireblade

Happy New Year guys and girls,

As ever the festive period flies by especially when you work retail and spend most of it at work....2015 wasn't the greatest of years for me so I'm hoping 2016 will bring with it better times.

I haven't had much chance to hobby over the festive period, only finishing off a few bits and pieces  foremost of which is a cadre fireblade for my Tau:

I feel like I'm getting there with the Tau, infantry wise I don't have much left to paint. The main project for the new year for them will be mass battlesuits.

Speaking of the new year I figured I would give something a go that I have seen on many other blogs and forums before. A track of everything painted for the year as well as models purchased, I hope it will give me a bit of a kick to try break the large back log of models and projects and stop me from adding much more to the pile.

I've added a little column to the right hand side of the blog to keep track of it all :)


With that I'm off to carry on recovering from the food and drink of yesterday, again happy new year everyone

Horus Heresy: Dark Apostle WiP

Evening guys and girls,

I have a quick mid week update for you tonight.

My Heresy era Word Bearer force is still bubbling away in the background. Its not a current priority if I'm honest. The Tau and assorted board games are currently ahead of it in the painting queue.

However with the release of the plastic heresy kits and Nife and Rictus both getting the set I ended up buying the plastic chaplain off Rictus. I planned to make it into a Dark apostle for the force, here is progress so far:

I've cut the front of his helmet off and replaced it with the one from a dark vengeance chosen, as I will run him as a Diabolist it works rather well. In keeping with the tactical marines I have done so far I've added a little chaos style trim to his one leg and the legion symbol to his chest.

Need to sort out his Cronzius and tidy him up a bit more and he will be good to paint. What do you guys think?

Tau Empire: Crisis Battlesuit Team

 Its been a long time guys and girls,

Must admit I've been rather distracted from posting of late, with the Christmas rush on much of my time is taken up by work. Then you had the added distractions of Halo 5 and Star Wars: Battlefront.

I have however been working away on stuff in the back ground and have enough finished bits and pieces for a few updates.

Today I present the first squad of Crisis Suits for my Tau, now although I have had Tau since they first released I have always been sparse on the battlesuit side due to never really being a big fan of the plastic kit.

This has changed since I got my hands on some cheap XV9 suits, I love the aesthetic of them look more alien than the plastics:

The repainting and reworking of my Tau has been going on since around 2008(yes I'm that slow) but it seems to me that I'm growing nearer and nearer completion. With the recent Tau release I only added a squad of Breachers and a Ghostkeel to my back log with the backs of the breachers already being broken.

Much of that back log is simply suits and vehicles the infantry core of the army actually being finished. Its getting quite scary being so close to finishing a force....

I'm working on quite the variety of stuff at the moment so as well as a few more Tau focused updates expect Dungeon Saga, Frostgrave, Bloodrage and Infinity to appear along the way, here's a WiP:

Thats it for now  then, I hope to get back into the swing of things posting wise :)

Frostgrave: Assorted WiPs

Evening guys,

Been quiet in here again of late, must say I've been rather busy in real life with work and a trip to Stockholm the other week.

I however have a few things to show for this update and a few saved for a more Deadzone themed one over the weekend.

First up we have some work in progress skeletons for the random encounters table:

These are some of the mantic ones I have left over from my Dungeon Saga Revenant conversions. They are pretty fun to paint, fairly quick too. going to be doing about another 4 or so of them to cover me for the table.

Next up we have the next member of my Necromancer warband an infantryman:

Really really enjoying working on these, I think theres only a couple more options I need to convert then they will all be ready for painting.

With some left over GS I had a play with adding chain mail to a stock Frostgrave plastic soldier:

It works quite well. The next warband I make will have a more mercenary feel of hired swords.

Well thats it for this quick update, will be back over the weekend with a more sci-fi themed one :)

Frostgrave: Great Worm

Evening guys and girls,

Another late update from me, been working on some more bits for Frostgrave. This time its some of the monsters from the random encounters table.

I've had my eye on some Reaper Bones miniatures for a while mainly to see what the quality is like, I took the plunge and ordered a great worm, hell hound and some spiders(not in this update). I've been really impressed with the quality of the models especially for such a low price point.

Needless to say I've been painting up the great worm:

Compared to a Frostgrave necromancer and one of my converted Perry foot knights

still a little work to do on him, the matte varnish has dried a little glossy for some reason but I think it helps with the effect.

I also have an Old Gamezone vampire on the painting table:

I've had this model lying around for at least 4 years, good to finally use it. Background wise it will represent a vampiric noble woman who was frozen during the cities fall. A lot of work to do on her.

After the vampire I plan to paint up 2 demons:

Both of these are reaper minis, the hound being a bones one and the other metal. I really love the flame elemental its a great sculpt.


I have also made a lot of progress on some Deadzone terrain and have even finished painting my cypher prime. Will pop those up during the week.

As ever thanks for looking :)

Frostgrave: The Beginning

Evening guys and girls,

Another late update but as is becoming more common these days I've been rather busy. The promised stormcast still aren't quite finished either...

Anyway yet again my hobby time has been spent on a bit of sculpting and gathering scenary for Frostgrave. Now given you can play it on a 2' x 2' board I shouldn't need to acquire too much, I'll be recycling some old LOTR ruins I still have and have also won a few lots on eBay for some rather nice terrain.

I have also purchased a piece of prepainted terrain from an eBay seller who has quite a range of stuff designed for Frostgrave take a look here.

The below is from the same seller I have just added snow and the bits of greenery to it:

Now Frostgrave is really letting me flex an idea of mine from years ago, during a time when I was toying with trying to write a fantasy type novel I came up with a sort of necromantic Empire type faction. Not straight up evil but not good sort of anti hero types.

Now they of course had both living and undead troops, with the elite praetorian types becoming wights after death to continue service. So my first warband is a necromancer and minions who will represent an emissary and his entourage investigating the ancient ruins.

Here are the first few:

This guy will be a templar.

A Thug, this guy is meant to represent a skirmisher so isn't as heavily armoured as the others. Fits with the Thug profile from the book too.

WiP Man at arms and crossbowman


These have been fun to work on, they are based on a range of kits we have  Perry Foot knights, Fireforge Teutonic Infantry and some arms and weapons from the Northstar Frostgrave soldier sprue. Been quite a change working on truescale 28mm models.

Anyway thats it for now, I shall return next week with fingers crossed the stormcast...............