James' Tsarakura Dynasty - Canoptek Scarabs

Ah yes, another new hobby project in a year where I told myself I'd focus on clearing out my backlog...

Why can't I ever stick to the plan?

When the new Necron range was released last year, the army went from one I had only a passing interest in to one I knew I had to collect at least some of. I started off by getting myself a Recruit Edition of Warhammer 40k for some of the new Necron Warriors to paint a test model. It's now a project I plan on slowly adding to throughout the year, and with the recent announcement of Hachette's Warhammer Imperium series, I've got lots of cheap models on the way!

In this post, I want to show one of the recent additions I've made to the collection in the form of some loveable little Canoptek Scarab bases. 

James' Painting Tips: The Tsarakura Dynasty

As I mentioned in a recent post, I've begun painting a small collection of Necrons in the Tsarakura Dynasty colours. It's been a lot of fun painting the test models up; however, I'm well aware that this is a project that I'll be jumping back and forth on. So I wanted to record my paint scheme for posterities sake, so no future James can curse me once he invariably forgets how to paint a Gauss Flayer properly. 

With that in mind, in this post, I'll be detailing every step I took when painting my test models, including every paint and some of the techniques I used. Hopefully, this is of some use to you, the reader, as well. 

As an advance warning, this post is a long one. I've tried to title each of the different sections of the model, so if you're looking for a particular colour, you can hopefully skip down to the required area. So then, read on to get a glimpse into the madness that is my painting!

The Value of a Test Model, and Remembering to Relax

I've often wondered at how hobbyists ever have the time to paint test models. I seem to spend the entirety of my hobby endeavours jumping between one large project to the next, so I've never approached painting one-off miniatures just to test out a scheme or paint something for the fun of it. 

This year, I decided that I'd join in and test out some schemes I've been planning for a while, or just paint some models I've always wanted to. I wanted to jot down some thoughts after having completed my first test minis, so in this post, I'll go through picking my first minis and the benefits of taking the time to try out ideas. 

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!

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb III

Hello everyone, Phaeron Tom here!

It has been a very busy weekend for my hobby with a massive amount of despruing, gluing, priming and starting to paint. As you might have already guessed, it was the Indomitus release weekend! This was a fantastic set, the rulebook looks great, and the build-up and planning for the Crusade has really excited me for the new edition of 40k (I barely played any 7th, and skipped all of 8th).

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb II

Greetings everyone!

It is only a few days until Indomitus is with us and I can get my hands a vast legion of undying robots. Whilst waiting for new the Necrons to arrive I've made steady progress working through my existing models, aiming to finish as much as possible before 9th lands and I have many more distractions!

My focus has been primarily on assembling a Ghost Ark that I mentioned in my previous post. I had planned to assemble it as a Doomsday Ark, but I made an early mistake in assembly, committing me to the dedicated transport variant. The kit is really cool and I have long admired the novel design of the vehicle that stands apart from many other 40k tanks.

The other unit I have worked on is 9 bases of Canoptek Scarabs. A little bit of scouring eBay, and a generous donation from the seller of the Ghost/Doomsday Ark sprues, resulted in me sitting on 100 of the (soon to be obsolete) plastic scarab models. Using the current 4 per 40mm base that would be 25 bases of scarabs, many more than I would ever consider running in a game. To mix things up I decided to pile high the little critters and create some truly massive 'swarms' of these miniature robots!

Xenos on Crusade: Awakening the Tomb I

Awakening the Tomb I

Hey everyone!

So June was the first month of our Xenos Crusade preparations. The aim was to plan a 50 Power Level force of our chosen faction and to begin assembling it with the intention of painting at least one unit before the end of the month.

As I mentioned previously the preview of the Indomitus box and the new Necron models sold me on the faction and sent me scurrying around to Medge's house to pick up Forgebane. Such was my excitement I had assembled and painted virtually all of this starter set before the 10 June post we made announcing the Crusade! So I'm going to show off progress so far and feast upon the life energies of the rest of the Warlords knowing that I am out ahead in painting progress!

That said, June was not a great month for painting and I barely made much more progress, stalling with the Lychguard and getting sidetracked into painting the Lord model I converted. My main excuse was finishing and moving into a new garden office that will be serving dual roles as my lockdown working from home fortress, a hobby space and future gaming hangout. It turns out I have had a lot of models to move and unbox into my new hobby den!

Xenos on Crusade: Introductions and Kick Off

What a great time for hobby, eh? 

Games Workshop's announcement of 9th Edition 40k has come as a very welcome burst of excitement in these difficult times, and reignited the passion and interest in 40k for all our Warlords. 

There's so much great stuff coming out on Warhammer Community right now for the new Edition it really is shaping up to be the best edition of Warhammer 40k to date!

One of the new ways of playing that has really piqued our interest is the Crusade system. For those not following the community page, Crusade is a new narrative way of playing that will see your force evolve over consecutive battles. Not only does your force increase in strength from game to game (via points/power rewards that allow you to bring more to the table), your individual units are able to earn honours (bonus rules/stats) and battle scars (negative rules/stats) for the acts they commit on the tabletop. 

This RPG-style evolution of a force doesn't only sound like a great way of playing normally... but the perfect set-up for another Tale of Five Gamers!