FWOD 2018 - Brief summary!

Huzzah! Anther successful open day!

The dawn chorus was once again rudely interrupted by the sound of a poorly tuned diesel, and we began the 2 hour journey to Nottingham. Arriving in the middle of what would become the eventual queue, we surged into the sales hall and realised.....we don't actually need anything new!

[Brother Handro: "To the Forgeworld store!"]

Two proteus' (Armoured and standard) and some doors for Handro, and the Last chance to buy renegade preachers [Der H: "Watch this space..."] for Der H and we returned our winnings to the car.

Several trips around the design studio hall, and the obligatory tour of the museum, later and we  had seen much!

A second [Brother Handro: "...and third"] trip round the forge world store saw Der H finally cave in and buy 5 more phoenix terminators and a Spartan with IIIrd legion doors....and a LCTB Hounds of Xaphan....don't ask!

Over the next few days we will post some summaries covering a review of the information gleamed about Titanicus - including and over the shoulder view of Tony unboxing the Grand Master Edition - and a post covering new releases and the new stuff from the studio!

For now here are our two new releases from today:

Lastly, stay tuned for tomorrow where we will review, with images, an unboxing from TC himself.

Der H & Brother Handro

Progress! ETL Progress

We actually had a hobby day! Brother Handro made some progress on his new knights, and I pushed on with my ETL vow! 

Gorgeous sunny day in Manchester so we were outside, made the paint dry faster!! 

Six jetbikes near finished! They all had Halfords grey primer, then a three stage airbrush (dark/mid/light purples and a wash) then silver.  

After that it’s gold and brass with details. 

The majority of the jetbikes use a white triangle on the front armour plate:

Whilst the Sergeant has a band instead: 

I have plans for a champion on jetbike so stay tuned!! 

 Der H & Brother Handro

NW30K - The Coronid Deeps - Character profile

Time for the main man! Praetor Lucius Tredecimus Brutus!

A game of poor rolling for Ld tests - even with an apothecary, champion and 7 palatine blades the deathsworn and magic Wolves champion, apothecary chap cut them down and a spectacularly failed Ld (5 & 6) meant they ran off the table - 6" deployment zones be damned!

Better luck next time!

Der H

NW30K - The Coronid Deeps - Character Profile

To follow on from my last post, now that I've played two campaign games its time to show off my campaign characters - today its Brother Chaplain Exurdo!

Exurdo didn't fare too well in his first game - his tactical squad was wiped off the board and he was left in combat with the Scars' praetor and his whole squad! Exurdo hit hard, and in teh challenge left the praetor concussed and one wound down. However, hit and run with jetbikes meant he ran, doubled back and cut him down on the charge.

Post battle he gained an attack but was captured. This is fun in and of itself; it means next month we'll have a Liberation mission to play!

Glory to the IIIrd!

Der H

NW30K - Coronid Deeps - Campaign

Finally some games played! Here in the North-West of England we have a 30K FB group. Ive watched and never joined in before, but no longer!

THis month I have played 2 (yes...TWO!) whole games of heresy. 2000pts using the book IV conquest system. We have two campaign characters (with details of these to follow!) starting with one skill and one advancement.

I've played against a jetbike heavy Scars list, and a Wolves list with twin Arcus backline....needless to say my inexperience, poor list optemisation and general foolishness has lead to two crushing defeats....

Brother Handro: "....best paint some jetbikes then eh!"

More games to follow, hopefully with some success!

Der H

Summer 2018 - Pledges, the ETL, and life in general!

Well that was a long month! For once, I've made no progress because I've been on call or away for every weekend for the last 5!

April's pledge for me was a complete non-starter. With Land Rover woes [Brother Handro: "Joys of classic motoring right?"] and work it just didn't happen. May has also been empty so far, mainly due to weekends out of the country, or certainly out of the basement!

Life overall is getting better, but still very changeable!

To top this off, I have a post grad exam coming up which is costly - in both time and money (£1000 worth to be precise!).

Brother Handro and I have been talking - rarely, but it happens! - and have a plan: for the summer we will have no Hobby Butterfly Pledges. Instead, given a love of a certain forum, we will engage in the ever popular...

=][= E Tenebrae Lux VI =][=

...without further ado!

Der H

I Der H rise to the challenge of E TENEBRAE LUX with my IIIrd Legion and vow to complete 6 Scimitar Jetbikes as a Sky Hunter Squadron, with a sky Hunter Sgt with Phoenix power spear on or before August 1st, 2018. Success will redeem my honour whilst failure will doom me to wear the Badge of the Oathbreaker and bring shame upon my Legion.

My pledge can be found here and my progress can be found on my Bolter and Chainsword plod here.

Brother Handro

May the forces or the warp, the Warmaster, the Emperor, or mighty Slaanesh guide our way!

Brother Handro & Der H

April 2018 - Schroedinger's Pledge

In which we ponder whether a pledge is complete or not... 

Brother Handro 

I had high hopes for this one. A single model in a month...I could lavish care and attention on it...and yet in the end I kind of lost my way with it, and the result is functional, nothing more. Still, one more finished model for the collection! (*Tries not to think about the hundred models he's added since then*)

Der H

Yea, that didn't happen! I pledged to complete my Dreadclaw drop pod, and it is in EXACTLY the same condition as when I started....and it is also now the end of May...

Now...where is that woman with that bell...ah here she is...

Der H & Brother Handro

Bolt Action Panzer 38(t) by Warlord Games, A Review

You can find a couple of video unboxings of Warlord Games' recent light tank offering, but none of them actually build the thing!...(Although Warlord Games themselves have ninja'd me last week. Should have posted this earlier!...)

Mighty artwork!

So what do we get in the box?

Two sprues (well, one and a half really) in the usual hull, tracks, turret pieces layout.

One set of Axis transfers (German, Hungarian, Bulgarian and Romanian) and the modern info card and damage markers. Also included is a nice glossy instruction guide, paint scheme suggestions and transfers guide.

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First off, you essentially get the option to build either an 'early'  (Ausf. B/C) or 'late' (Ausf. E/F/G) version, (there are only minor differences, and rules-wise none at all) and the option to remove the hull MG for a platoon commander's tank. (Would probably do for the Recon variant provided in the rules). Equally you get an early-war tank commander with beret and a later version with standard sidecap.

The parts are numbered in the guide but not on the sprue, which causes a little back and forth, but is still technically an improvement from the 'no parts labelling at all, just guess if it looks like the picture' days.

The kit goes together well, taking me about an hour and a half to complete. You can build it quicker but I'm a stickler for every part being cleaned up and dry-fitting before gluing.

Things you might find tricky;

You'll find it easier to build the track assemblies if you put the rear pieces (parts 26 & 27) in first, there's a slot which should ensure you don't go wrong, allowing the adjoining pieces to go in smoothly.

The front hull plate was a pretty tight fit. It'll need a little bit of pressure to pop in, or you may want to insert it before gluing both track sides to the hull.

The rear panel of the turret doesn't sit particularly well until the top plate is fitted, so get that part ready to go at the same time.

Parts 40 and 41, which sit on the rear hull and are something to do with the running gear are incredibly fiddly to attach. Get your tweezers ready! I have no idea why the weren't simply moulded as part of the hull. I think it might be possible to glue them in before attaching the rear panel but I didn't think of that at the time...

Part 39 (turret handgrab) is tiny and will also require tweezers, as well as careful removable from the sprue.

Extras include the signature German jack (placed differently or simply left off all the example models) and a fire extinguisher, of which there is entirely no mention and I can only assume is there for the sprue's other purpose, namely making up part of the Marder kit.

Interestingly (or not...) Warlord always style their kits as being made of 'hard plastic'. I presume that's a technical definition, but I found this kit to be relatively 'soft' - it was very easy to file and clean up in comparison to their infantry sprues and some other makers' plastic.

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Ta-dah!

She's a dinky little thing, I have a soft spot for many of the boxy early-war, bolted together death traps...here's a size comparison;

For the record, that's a British Sherman V, so infinitesimally longer than a regular one...

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In summary, this is a straightforward, no hassle tank kit that you should be able to knock together in no time. £18 is the going rate for Warlord's plastic medium tanks, so you might feel a little short-changed to pay the same for a light, but what can you do! If you play early-war you can gain same 'value' by buying the 3 tank platoon, and it's your only option if you want plastic, so what are you waiting for?  Panzer (38t) vor!

Handro