This week

I've managed to do a few hobby related things this week, despite being stupidly busy at work.

Painting wise, I managed to find time to base up my Seraphim. With the true LOS rules in 5th, I probably should have done them crouching or something but hell I like the mini as it is. I've also undercoated a squad of Plague Marines and a Rhino ready to start on this weekend.

I had a long drive on Wednesday so on the way I caught up with a couple of pod casts. The Drop Pod Cast have a new edition dedicated to 40k 5th Edition which is quite good. They've changed the shows format over the last couple of editions and I think it is much improve. I also managed to catch up on a edition of This Week in Wargaming (3rd episode) I'd downloaded a couple of weeks ago. Not much 40k related as it's pretty much dedicated to Hordes and Warmachines but this ones always an interesting listen. I notice on the site this morning they've got a new edition out as well.

I've finished reading the 5th Edition rule book last night and it is rocking. I think the new rules are a vast improvement on 4th Edition, and the background section is really, really good. I don't think the hobby section is quite as good as 4th edition though but I didn't really buy the book to learn how to paint miniatures.

I've also read the new issue of Firebase magazine, superb as always. It's like White Dwarf used to be when I started out in the hobby.

New podcasts and 40K 5th Edition

I've listened to a couple of new editions of podcasts this week. 40K Radio have got a new edition out which they've recorded on location and covering some parts of 5th edition and it's excellent as always. There's also a new edition of Podhammer out as well where they're talking about the Brettonian army list. I don't play WHFB myself (I do own the 7th ed rule book though) but Podhammer is always an excellent listen.

My new Warhammer 40000 5th Edition rule book arrived on Wednesday. I had hoped to get it a bit quicker as I'd pre-ordered it form Total Wargamer but that was not to be. Anyway, I haven't had much time to read it in detail, I've just flicked through it. I have seen a pre-release copy at a GW store and seen it in action in a couple of games in the same store. The background section of the rule book is huge and looks great, but I was a bit disappointed that there is no detailed army page for either Witch Hunters or Daemon Hunters. The D6 Generation did an awesome and detailed podcast on 5th Edition with Yakface from Dakka Dakka which is worth a listen to get the low down on the changes.

Personally, I think the biggest game changing change is the change to having only troops holding objectives. Given that 2/3 of all the missions are objective based I think this is going to change alot of lists. I've already tweaked my Witch Hunters list to drop the Dominion squad I had (they're a Fast Attack choice) in favour of another Sister squad. I'm also going to drop my Assassins in favour of some Celestians and the changes to the CC rules mean that the the Assassins (either DCA or Eversor) can't clear their kill zone on the charge so they're just going to get piled on and squashed. Maybe I'm misreading this but that's the ways I'm seeing it.

Nurgle Daemon Prince: Now with Wings!

Finally got round to getting the wings finished on my daemon prince, here's how he looks now:

They've turned OK I suppose, I'd rather not had to have added them on but if I ever want him to be effective on the tabletop he's going to need them. He was never designed with wings in mind, hence I had to do that slight rubbish "bursting out of his cloak" look.

The wings themselves are from a Tomb Kings carrion which I got relatively cheaply off ebay. I bulked the length of the wings out with green stuff to make them a bit bigger. Painting wise they're pretty simple. They're based with Catachan Green, then washed 3-4 times with Catachan Green and Chaos Black (about 2:1 mix of so). After that they were drybrushed with Catachan Green and Bleached Bone all the way up to pure Bleached Bone. The feathers had an extra drybrush, very lightly with Skull White. Finally, I glazed the bandages/skin bits on the wings with Chestnut Ink to pick them out a bit.

My new green stuff finally arrived on Saturday so I've made some progress with my Nurgle rhino. It's ready for painting now really. I've also put some green stuff detail on my SOB canoness as well, which I'm still not sure if really good enough for such a well sculpted model.

Modelling phase

The way I prefer to work when painting is to alternate from doing purely modelling (building minis, conversions etc) to purely painting. At the moment I'm jsut doing modelling. The main reason I end up working like this is I prefer to spray paint my miniatures in larger batches so I don't have to keep going backwards and forwards every week to spray new stuff, mainly because the wife shouts at me if I do. This means that currently I've got sat on my desk 7 Nurgle Marines, a nearly converted Nurgle rhino, a Witch Hunters priest, a Inquisitor Acolyte, SOB canoness, and 10 Seraphim. Still waiting on the arrival on more green stuff to finish off the canoness and rhino.

Painting wise I've base coated the wings on my Daemon Prince so they just need highlighting now.

Warhammer 40K 5th Edition is out on Saturday. I've got my copy (just the standard rule book) on pre-order from total wargamer, so I'm hoping it'll arrive early.

Work In Progress: Nurgle Rhino

I've managed to get this done this week, it's a Rhino for my Plague Marines. I've basically stuck to the principal of getting an ordinary Chaos Rhino and sticking crap on it to make it Nurgly. The grey/green lumps are not finished yet, it's just I've run out of green stuff. I've got 3 feet of it on order from ebay so that'll keep my going.

Cool Mini Or Not?

Not much to report on this week, as I've been away and not had much time for painting. I have submitted my first picture to Cool Mini or Not. It's the Nurgle Defiler you can see in the post below. I was thinking it was about a 6/10 and that is pretty much what is has got for votes, so I'm quite pleased. This is the link to it if you'd like to vote.