For the Lion: Bladeguard

Hi all it's Neil here with a new For the Lion post about the latest unit I've added to my 40k Dark Angels.  This new unit is the Bladeguard from the Indomitus box.  I've painted these up in my Deathwing colours to match my Deathwing Knights.  The Bladeguard are a new unit of Primaris Veterans armed with master-crafted power swords and storm shields making them a resilient melee unit but are slow to cross the tabletop as they lack the jump packs of Vanguard Veterans or the teleport strike of Deathwing Terminators.

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Finale

Hi all it's Neil here with another update for my Hive Fleet Lindworm for Xenos on Crusade.  This month's update will be the last for the Xenos on Crusade as with 2020 ended our group project has ended too.  I may revisit Lindworm in the future but for now I'll be moving onto other projects.  This month's edition to the swarm has been 8 genestealers, which are the last Tyranid models I had left in my backlog.

James' Hobby Year in Review - The Highs, The Lows and Plans for 2021

Well, that was a year never to forget...

It's not often you can say you've seen the world come to a grinding halt, but 2020 delivered in a truly monstrous way. The combination of a global pandemic and subsequent lockdowns has easily made this year the most challenging of my life. It would be expected to focus on the negatives considering that. However, in some ways, I feel it more valuable to look back on the year and focus on the positives and self-improvements I've made.

As part of that retrospective, I wanted to take a minute and recount my hobby achievements this year, no matter how small they may be. I know for myself and the other bloggers here, we've all used the hobby to escape from what felt like the ever-encroaching doom that 2020 was bringing. So in this post, you'll find a recollection of each of the projects that I undertook this year, as well as a glance into my plans for 2021. Let's get into it!

A 2020 Retrospective; Medge's Year in review, and plans for 2021

It's over...

It's finally over...

The sun has finally set on 2020 and whilst it's definitely been one I'd like to forget for a LOT of reasons, it's certainly been a productive one for hobby.

Like many of you readers, hobby has been a lifeline for me over the course of the year. My co-bloggers have been invaluable gaming and painting companions over the year, both in person (between lockdowns) and electronically, and painting/ modelling has offered a much needed escape while the world outside turned upside down.

In this retrospective I'll go through the year, the various projects I've worked on, to celebrate some pretty big project ends. I'll then cap things off with some initial hobby ambitions for 2021

Let's start by rolling back the clock...

A 2020 Retrospective - Neil's thoughts on 2020 and looking forward to 2021

Hi all it's Neil here with a quick look back at my 2020 hobby year.  I'm sure we can all agree that it has been a different year with the pandemic really limiting the gaming part of this hobby so for most of the year I've been limited to the building and painting aspects in general though my theory hammer has also been getting some work too.

Casting Off: The Grand Old Duke Of York

Hi all it's Neil here with another Casting Off post for Victory at Sea with my growing Royal Navy task force. This time is all about battleships as I have painted up the Duke Of York, a King George V class battleship.  I will in this post show you my painted model, give a brief overview of historical battleship use and how I see them being used in games.

Casting Off: Light Cruisers On Patrol

Hi all it's Neil here with another Casting Off post for Victory at Sea and my growing Royal Navy fleet.  I have painted up the trio of light crusiers that come in the starter box so this post will be about how I painted them, the historical use of light cruisers in WW2 and how I see them being used in the game.

For the Lion: REPENT!

Hi all it's Neil here with another Dark Angel's post in my For the Lion series.  This is about my Interrogator Chaplain in Terminator armour, which is using the Commemorative Series Terminator Chaplain Tarentus model that got a limited release earlier this year.   Interrogator Chaplains are a Dark Angel unique HQ who basically a Chaplain with extra morale harming abilities in the game.  In the lore, these are the Chaplain's who have proven themselves and been inducted into the Inner Circle.  They are responsible for extracting confessions from the Fallen who are captured to redeem the Dark Angel's secret sin from the Heresy.

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Month 6

Hi all it's Neil here with a new post about my Hive Fleet Lindworm force for our group Xenos on Crusade project.  If this is the first time you've seen one of these posts the basic info is that we've been playing the new 9th edition Crusade narrative rules with a Xeno faction each, with mine being Tyranids, and using the Crusade rules to play games and paint models for our rosters.  This month due to lockdown there hasn't been any gaming possibilities so I lost a lot of enthusiasm for the force but I did paint up a Broodlord for the hive.

Casting Off: Destroyer Screen

Hi all it's Neil here with some more WW2 ships in this Casting Off following my journey with Victory at Sea by Warlord Games.  This post will be about the destroyers from the Royal Navy Starter Fleet box that I've painted up and a bit about both the historical use of destroyers and how I think they might be useful in game.

For The Lion: High Speed Combat

Hi all it's Neil here with a new post about my Dark Angels that I've been paining up.  Its been a little bit of a gap since the last one but with the new Indomitus box I've started to add new units to my Dark Angels and have started up doing a Crusade force with them too.  The first unit of new marines to be painted are the Outriders who are part of the 2nd Company, the Ravenwing.

Casting Off: The First Ship Out of Port

Hi all it's Neil here with another post about Victory at Sea from Warlord Games.  In this post I'll take a look at my first model for the game, the Royal Navy battleship HMS Warspite.  I will take a look at the model pieces itself and then show how I've painted it up (plus there are even be some small bits about the real Warspite's history with the Royal Navy).

Casting Off: A Look At Victory at Sea from Warlord Games

Hi all it's Neil here and today I'm going to look at a new game from Warlord Games, Victory at Sea.  Victory at Sea is a WW2 Naval Fleet Combat game where both sizes field ships from destroyers all the way up to battleships and aircraft carriers.  It uses 1/1800th scale ships and aircraft as the gaming pieces.  It has the feel of a very characterful rules set similar in feel along with some vibes of World of Warships for those that have played.  The rules out at the moment are not the full set rather they're basically starter rules so miss out some parts (even though they're referenced in this rulebook).  In this post I'm going to take a look at the available rules and at one of the available models from Warlord Games.

Xenos on Crusade: Neil the Devourer; Hive Fleet Lindworm Month 3

Hi all it's Neil here back with a new update for my Tyranids in our Xenos on Crusade series.  Hive Fleet Lindworm has been expanding with the addition of a Maleceptor and a Toxicrene.  Lindworm has also been pretty active on the socially distanced battlefield since the lockdown rules have eased enough for outdoor gaming to start up.  The Toxicrene and Maleceptor bring me up to having 50 (well 49) power painted and ready.

WW3 - 27th (Neil's Own) Lancers - Reconnaissance

Hi all it's Neil here back for some more of my 27th (Neil's Own) Lancers for WW3 Team Yankee.  This post is showing my latest additions to this force, a pair of reconnaissance units.  These are a unit of 4 Scorpions and a unit of 4 Scimitars, to work towards my planned list from the previous post.

WW3: Team Yankee - Faction Focus: US - Part 2: Support Units

Hi all it's Neil here and welcome back to my WW3 Team Yankee Series.  This is Part 2 of my look at the new US book.  In this post I'm going to look at the support units available to US players, this is both Divisional Support Choices as well as supporting options in formations (i.e non compulsory/"black box" units basically).  If you're wanting to see the formations the check out Part 1 here.

These Support units can be divided up into these categories; anti-tank missile launchers, artillery, AA and aircraft .  There is a single unit which I wouldn't talk about here which is only available as a support unit, the M551 Sheridan tank.  This is because as it was the only tank that's not a black box unit I decided to take a look in Part 1 with the other tanks.

Xenos on Crusade - Tim's Drukhari Month 2: Emboldened by Bloodshed

Hi all it's Tim here, with the next instalment in my Drukhari crusade.

Progress so far

After the massive burst of energy for the first month and a half, my sadistic space elves have had to retreat back to the shadows as a burst of enthusiasm for painting space marines took over with the launch of New 40k and Indomitus.

However, they are still on track, with the last remaining element of my starting force taking on the mantle of agony (/ base coats of paint) and needing tidy up and working to a proper finish. This month I:

1. painted a few more kabalite warriors with splinter rifles to get 2 properly equipped squads
2. basecoated my Wracks (converted from crypt ghouls with creepy harlequin masks to go with my converted Grotesques, and adding worrying  prosthetics)
3. magnetised my 6 Talos and laid down the base coat on the first one to join my Crusade
4. converted some Sslyth with a covens like flavour from spare parts lying around - these creepy bodyguards have been gifted to Archon Orfeon by his Coven allies, and
5. painted up a fair bit of my Haemonculus, Kaizin; and
6. finished off some pre-Crusade Drukhari painting, in the form of a Razorwing Jetfighter.

Here are the results - I don't have a lightbox for proper background, but I do have a book full of pictures of volcanoes: so that is what my Drukhari will have!

Hobby Home Improvements: Building a Better Hobby Desk

Hi everyone,

Today I thought I'd do something a bit different from the usual painting post and take a deep dive into one of the oft unexplored realms of the hobby - the ubiquitous hobby desk. 

We've all got one; whether it's a tiny corner of the kitchen table or an entire garden office dedicated to nothing but the glory of your miniature collection, no hobby enthusiast can do without this most essential tool. For myself, I've often just settled for whatever space I could find. It's never been ideal, it's rarely ever been spacious, but it's allowed me to clip, file and paint my way to a surprisingly large collection of models.

However, having just recently moved home, I've been presented with a rare opportunity to design my own room; and with it, the chance to build my perfect hobby zone. My previous set up was far, far away from functional. Sharing the space with my PC and digging through an old Citadel Hobby Project Box (these things sound like a great idea up until the first moment you actually use them) to find my paints/tools for the day was not the best start to a hobby session. 

So what then would I change? What exactly constitutes a perfect hobby desk in the madness that is my mind?

WW3: Team Yankee - Faction Focus: US - Part 1: Formations

Hi all it's Neil here and welcome back to my WW3: Team Yankee series.  This is going to be Part 1 of my look at the new US book.  In this post I will look at the various formations available to US players.  This isn't going to be a deep look into competitiveness of the various options rather it will be a newer player's look at the options.  If you are also a newer player to WW3 Team Yankee I would suggest to read this Introduction post first.  This is going to be quite a long post due how much is in the new book so I hope you feel like sticking with it and get to the end.

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb IV

Hey everyone, Tom here!

So July is now over and I just managed to fully paint the first 25PL (26PL actually) of my crusade force, just in time with the release of the #New40k rules! Here is the force crammed into my light box like errr well skeletons in a tomb!