Roadmap to summer...1500pts ZM

Lockdown is ending!!

.So it appears we have a road map to summer and the end of COVID restrictions. Clearly this is an ideal scenario type gig - my quiet Jan/Feb (due to COVID escalation rotas) is a testament to plans not quite going as…well…planned.

At the current rate, however, we are on for games in the not too distant future. (Brother Handro: “Wait…does that mean we need to paint something?…”)

Zone Mortalis

Some time ago Der H bought some ZM tiles on Last Chance to Buy, they sat unused for a time and eventually found some paint last year!

So hey…why not use them.

Both of the Butterflies have Legion goals with new forces that haven’t quite taken off, and so we decided that a great way to start would be planning for a set of 1000pt ZM games following the Hit and Run Blood in the Void rules against an escort. Mission one being Void Strike. depending how it goes, and depending on progress we can do mission 2 and 3, and push to 1500 pts.

Der H will be running Iron Warriors

Brother Handro will be pushing the Imperial Fists…

….Roll on Phall!

The first phase…

Der H’s list is a tidy 23 models, with Praevian, 2 Castellax and 20 Breachers, whilst Brother Handro has gone for the squishier Champion, 2 Apothecaries, 10 Tacticals, 10 Breachers and 10 Warders.

Stretch Goal…

1500 adds 10 more Breachers and 10 Iron Havocs for Der H and 5 Vets plus 5 Terminators for Brother Handro…evening out the squishy somewhat!

The idea is that, missing our usual event-driven progress, we can make our own event of it…and drive some progress….

…of course, knowing one’s opponent might mean some subtle changes before list day….

World Eaters! - Brother Handro's Work Bench - February 2021

What new, seemingly unconnected projects have we been working on this week?…

That’s right, apropos of nothing, World Eaters!

Well, not entirely from nothing. These boys have been kicking around for the best part of 2 years, until the majority of the stuff I had squirrelled away for some bright day where I’d magically start the project was actually folded in my first full, proper army, the Sons of Horus. (Lots of infantry, Assault squads, chainaxes…makes sense!) But that army did bring some indirect benefit - it was the first time I committed to airbrushing the whole army, infantry included, which is an obvious stumbling block when it come to painting the white armour of the World Eaters….

Fast forward a year or so and the #returntoisstvan campaign spearheaded on Instagram seemed as good a spur as any to finally start the XII Legion…

Gotta Go Fast!…

Another inadvertent benefit of delaying the project was getting used to the concept of painting in subassemblies, something we’d picked up from Adeptus Titanicus. This brings pretty obvious benefits when it comes to airbrushing models that are white and blue and never the twain shall meet.

Quick Mock-up time!

The final unintentional bonus came from my dabbling in oil washes on my Militia/Solar Auxilia tanks. Using oils as a recess wash (something I’ve already done with my first few Imperial Fists units) is a huge boon to armies that are painted in light colours, and airbrushed in general. The thought of trying to use washes and layers on Fists and World Eaters….(shudders)….they are equally useful for streaking and rust effects, which also looks extra nice on pale armour.

So that’s it for this month. Wonder what I’ll start next week?…. (Der H: I don’t want to even guess…)

2020 in review, and looking forward

No more shall the shame of missing a pledge be felt, from now on we will all travel in tubes!

….Wait…that’s a different thing!

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Everyone (to 2020):

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2020 was set up to be a year of events; Company of Legends, Scarring of Alspa, Damochan, Heresy.Scot, Melos….We had plans to each complete a titan legio, a militia list, and add to our 30k frontline lists. We even had the supposed opportunity with lockdowns being forced to stay at home. So what happened…

…COVID (Der H: “If you didn’t know the answer, turn on the TV…”)….COVID happened. Der H is a doctor and so the year has been busy. But even with days off and annual leave, progress wasn’t as amazing as we all thought it would be. Several podcasts, (looking at you Age of Darkness!), have hit the nail on the head in their recent ‘casts: a lot of people feel ashamed of their lack of ‘progress’, especially when the time was seemingly available.

At work there is a lot of talk about fatigue, and what that means. The daily “Do I have a temperature?”, “Have I got my mask?”, “Can I go to that shop?” etc takes a toll. I write this between two 13-hour shifts in a large ICU. Constant FFP3, ceaseless admissions, more deaths and life-changing ICU admissions than usual takes a toll - the Hobby we do in our free time shouldn’t be what shames us. The Age of Darkness Podcast do a Two week hobby challenge - its great, but results in many fellow hobbyists landing in the box of shame. They have recently (here I think) ended the box of shame, and will be taking a new approach without shame, but celebrating progress….and that’s what we’re going to do!

2021: Celebrate achievement, don’t shame failure

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So, for 2021, we are going to focus on celebrating what we get done each month. Not focusing on our failures. Thers is a joy of ‘butterflying’ between projects; there’s always so much on the go!

Keep an eye out for our respective January in review posts, as well as the February “whats on our workbench” post in the next few days!

Handro's Orky Gubbinz

Wherein Handro realises he’s simply got too much Orky stuff…

Hey guys, remember me?

Alright, so with the Gorkamorka push on the front foot, I thought it only natural to massively overreach myself by attempting to kickstart my mechanised Ork army (Der H ‘I thought we weren’t allowed to talk about them?’). an abandoned, over-ambitious project (never!) from the mists of, ooh, say 2017, probably.

‘We’’s ready, where’s da rest ov da boyz?’

The plan is hopefully just plug away with larger units in the background whilst ostensibly ploughing on with Gorkamorka stuff, i.e. if I need to paint 7 boyz up for my mob, 3-4 more for a full unit is a no-brainer. If I want a new trukk/buggy (Der H ‘truggy?’) or a bike for a gang member, I might paint up (read, ‘start’) all my vehicles at once, or a unit of 3 bikes…

Killa Kanz!

Hmm, you know what? I feel a list (of shame) coming on…

Fings what are unda way:

Bosswagon

Buggy

Battlewagon

Truggy

3 bikes

Garok’s Gangerz (Morka gang ~4 models)

3 Killa Kanz

Looted Tank

15 Stormboyz + Zagstruk

5 Burnas, 5 Lootas

Deff Dred

3 Meganobz

Deffkilla Warbike

Boomdakka Snazzwagon

Big Mek w/ Shokk Attack Gun

Fings what av paint on ‘em:

Shoota Boyz squad

Warboss, squig + 10 Nobz

Runtherd + 10 Gretchin (although I still can’t find them!)

Painboy

Wazbom Blastajet (undercoated, still counts!)

Fings what ain’t even built yet:

Snikrot + Kommandos

3 more bikes

~10 Boyz

12 Snap-fit Boyz, for conversion

Flash Gitz

Fings what are ready ta fight!

Nob + 10 Slugga Boyz

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So yeah, hopefully that last section might grow. A bit. Possibly.

Warhammer community live stream - new stuff!

What a preview! I made a point of watching this for the Titan reveal, but was pleasantly surprised by the content! Lets do the Titan first!

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Adeptus Titanicus

This chonky boi is the Warmaster titan. Larger than the Warlord, it is HUGE. the weapons are described as:

• Two Suzerain-pattern Plasma Destructors

• Revelator Missile Launcher

• Ardex Defensor Cannons

• Lascannon Knees! - The strange look of this reflects the old Jes Goodwin art - see below!

Scale-wise, Warhammer Community include this image, and suggested it is not far off the size of 28mm knights - Chonky Boi indeed!

The new book, closely followed by its traitor equivalent, covers 16 titan legions and 12 knight houses that are loyal to the Imperium. (Der H: “Boooooo!”)

Legio Metalica, perchance?

Power creep aside, the inclusion of this bad boy is likely in each of our legios. A single Warmaster, two Warlords, and the rabble that follow will have a nice symmetry I suppose! I dare say the Loyalist Legios book will be bought….after all, House Mortimer are loyalists….

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40k - Kill team & Sisters of Battle

After the hype of 9th edition, and a hastily bought Indomitus box, Der H’s Necrons have been relegated to a black basecoated mass in a box in a cupboard (Brother Handro: “Oh…the one with the sign on the door saying ‘Beware of the leopard’). But now, they can have some friends!

The box looks great, some nice Necron models in there, and some Intercessors that can…..sit unbuilt…forever…

The Flayed Ones were never my cup of chai, but they do look nice, and the box combined with terrain might make a good entry point for newer players! with Kill Team as a gateway purchase….oh G’dubs you smart old bean!

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Fantasy and the Cursed City

So alas, the Old World and Mordheim did not re-appear…but a new Warhammer Quest has been announced, and Underworlds saw some gorgeous sculpts that might even be usable in the Grim Dark of 30k!

I didnt really feel drawn into the main AoS section, but the vampires and the Cursed City really tugged at my coat tails! The new totally-not-Mordheim box might be an interesting way to get into….well…Mordheim….if only I could tempt a certain person…then I can spend my time building fantasy houses…..(Brother Handro: “and dropping them down the stairs….”)

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And that is it for the Preview! Some amazing reveals, one of which will get bought pretty sharpish (Brother Handro: “Paint. Your. Damn. TITANS!!!”), and some which we might just dodge…

New website features...

New year….sort of new site

Brother Handro: “I mean, its not really new…”

Der H: “Meh…”

In 2021 we decided to accept certain things:

1) Instagram is where the hobby is…

2) We don’t use some features here

3) We want to have this site as a place to put blog posts

4) Out wall of shame is so out of date it isn’t even funny

As such, here are some current, and some proposed, changes :

1) The gallery

The old gallery was a random collection of "some pictures” rather than what we’re actually doing! The new Gallery page has our last 20 posts as a grid, with links to our pages. That’s it. Gallery done…

2) The home page

This was a little tweak rather than anything else. The search bar is now up top, and the last 5 posts below. There is still the link to older posts, and the format here has also changed…

3) The Archive

This was previously an endless (Brother Handro: “Dont flatter yourself…”) list of previous posts, but now it is by month and year…much easier!

4) The wall of shame

This hasnt changed, yet….we need to take inventory…..this might take a while…

5) About us…

For now this will stay, until we find a better use for it!

6) Hot links bar

The links section has been tweaked as well: we have more of them!

From left to right we have THB Instagram, Brother Handros Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, YouTube, Cults 3D, and Thingiverse…..quite a list of socials….we arn’t on TikTok…don’t ask (Brother Handro: “Are we really ‘on’ YouTube”)

7) HB-3D

This is a recent re-branding of Der H’s 3D kitbashing…for more details, check out the links, or the blog post here.

That’s about it I think….Let us know if you particularly like, or dislike, anything. Stay tuned for more Hobby Butterflies madness!

Brother Handro's Work Bench - January 2021

In which Handro briefly describes the random assortment of bits and pieces he’s been not quite finishing for the last six months…

I actually finished a titan…

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Y’know, flitting from one project to another on an almost daily basis goes without saying on this blog, but honestly I’m not sure I’d have it any other way. Some people have thousands of points worth of stuff for one faction or system all painted and ready to go and the luxury of being able to pick and choose your force from a pool of finished stuff is one I’m not overly familiar with (Der H ‘I’ll say….)’, but to me it will always be about keeping the hobby mojo going by knowing there’ll always be something lurking in the Hobby Cupboard of Doom (tm) to grab my attention…so without further ado, I give you….Handro’s stuff and things….

Not this one though…

So I’ve been mainly working on Adeptus Titanicus in the last few months. I cannot get enough of the models, and the New Year’s teaser images of a potentially new chassis give me impetus to continue the charge. It doesn’t hurt that my efforts spur on Der H to finally get on his Legio Fureans stuff either. (Der H ‘Alright, alright!…)

Or this one…

Aside from big stompy death machines, I’ve been airbrushing my 30k scale Knights (Der H ‘Errr….still big stompy death machines?’), building and starting to paint a Star Wars Legion clone army, and building a World Eater assault force. My newly-airbrushed Imperial Fists Zone Mortalis stuff is looking at me disapprovingly…

Looking after the new guy…

I’ve recently built some Ork vehicles for that Gorkamorka thing Der H always bangs on about…gives me a reason to dust off (literally) the piles of Ork stuff I’ve got lying about…

Orky 8-wheeler!

Seeing the awesome stuff Der H has got lined up, I’ll have to pull out all the stops for my Orky vehicle konvershuns….

Der H's Work Bench - January 2021

January is odd this year…the relief of 2020 being over has been replaced by another secondment to ICU to cover COVID activity, we’re in another national lockdown, and for some reason the Tax Man wants money….bah! I guess I should get on with some back log then eh… (Brother Handro “Isn’t that the whole idea?”)

Tiny Titans!

Titanicus is a thing apparently….this month sees me get stuck into my Fureans…4 warhounds are on the table right now, weapons done (except the new Ursus Claws!) and now its time to crack out the airbrush again to get the armour panels sorted.

Star Wars legion

Handro finally made me crack and start with SWL…but until I can justify buying the Emprie/Rebel starter box I need to bolster the droid contingent of Brother Handro’s Clone Wars box. A useful gift from a good friend set me up with Dooku, and the wonders of 3D printing from a number of good Gum road sources have me sitting with 4 fully kitted-out B1 squads! Recently, helped by the Mandalorian, I’ve printed storm troopers, shore troopers and tank troopers so keep an eye out for some progress on the bench…

GorkaMorka

So, Since Handro has finally given in, i need to take him up on the opportunity to get Gorkamorka going…I bought the Build+Paint Ork sets some time ago (Brother Handro “That was JULY 2018…”) for this purpose, and have finally got stuck in….Zagscar’s Raderz are finally under way!

Guess I best get to it!