Hammerhead 2016 - The Phats cats demo team on tour!

So with the new year the show season is already upon us!

I wandered over to the Hammerhead show last weekend and did my usual running around snapping pics as I went!

Now this show was a bit of a challenge for the demo team as we'd decided to do a table for gates of Anteres so that involved myself and Phil sorting out a 4x4 desert style table, It will also serve as the table that we will be using for gorkamorka that will be kicking off in May (ish)

So we needed to get the bromites sorted out as well as the terrain, Phil had a master plan with regards to the terrain and I cracked on with the bromites, I simply added more to the initial bunch that I picked up a while back

so with all the bits and bobs done, it was an early start so with relentless in hand the show kicked off!

ploughing though the models!

painting the terrain in a few hours! 

a quick sample of what we did,  most of it was with spray cans!

and the day before the show we discovered that we didn't have a 4x4 desert board! and Nick wouldn't let me spray an old school GW mat ;)

so in no particular order here we go......

this was an interesting one as it appeared to be a "usual" Napoleonic table but with film crew! 

This was a beast of a table!

I liked this one as I've just watched the Revenant....  

witch racing! 

Carl from Second Thunder explaining open combat 

Richard's KOW mega game!! 

the only picture I managed to get of the Phat cats table! 

And who are these fine looking individuals, Oh that's right its the Hysterical games demo team, and their first ever show!

More about this board on a later blog post. however it did win best constructed board which was wicked!

so onto the "loot" I've been really good for the last few months and decided to have a bit of a spend at this one! 

 The open combat and devils run were KS pick ups, the 7TV I'm gonna blame on Lee on this one! a lot more on that one at a later date since we've managed to get a game in!

The Antares stuff is to add to the Ghar as I only had the basic guys from the main box game.

Over all great show and can't wait for 2017!

"Super" Edd's Hobby Project Phase one,

So whats this all about....

Well a chap (and he's a bloody good chap!) I've known for a number of years decided to do a new year new army style progression system based on 30K and with the Calth box set being stupidly good value for money it would be rude not to give it a crack!

So rather and going completely bananas and collecting a 3K army that would cost you a 2 months worth of mortgage payments, Ed's been quite clever and started with 500 points, you then add 250 points on per month so you can slow grow your force without having to feel that you have to keep up.

So as it was a small start you only needed 1 HQ and 1 Troop, nice and simple and gives you plenty iantly of choice with regards to other cool toys!

The only "rule" is that you stick to the same Legion throughout the campaign, but you can adjust your army as you unlock more points so jigging bits about as you see fit.

The hardest choice for some people would be the legion how ever for myself I knew which one I was going for.....

However rather than being a traitor force, I've gone down the route of the loyalists or what remains of them after the betrayal!

To say it's been a while since I've played 40K is an understatement, so I've gone back to basics with the 30K project and as I'm a great believer in infantry is king I started with the follow as my 500 points,

in a nutshell its death by bolter!

All this force would come from the Calth box set to I didn't need to buy anything extra, that was until I saw the upgrade pack from forge world and a quick drive later and I was alot lighter in the pocket!

and that's all you get for 500 points!

however in true Anton fashion I kept going and sorted out some more options for phase two!

so I've 5 blades, 5 terminators and a commander along with banner, however I need to get the rest of the command squad at some point and might mix and match the power armour for that unit.

So what started off as a dozen people soon ended up into this motley crew!

and according to Edd more people were chopped off on the left hand side! However I wasn't able to play in the first round due to my niece's 3rd birthday party (cake always wins!)

the fury of all the dice!!

I managed to grab a couple of snaps of the models on the day..

these were the top 6 that were selected on the day, all very nicely done,

Between myself and Dave aka Scorpius we will each cover the campaign I'll be the loyalist and Dave the Traitors so these are some of the loyalist armies in the campaign with a few works from the guys and girls who are fielding these fine looking forces!

So lets start with the instigator of this whole thing...

Edd Barfield

I chose to Solar Auxilia as I wanted to try and break out of the habit of dark toned armies that I have done for many years, I wanted to try a brighter more vibrant looking force with a strong military theme

Liam Harrison

As I'm known as The Indecisive One, a Shattered Legions army seemed a no-brained as I have painted bits and bobs for various legions. I've focused on the Thousand Sons and White Scars as I'm a huge fan of both, and now they've had shoulder pads and upgrades released, I can try out a white and red army (both colours I've never really painted and it's a change from the usual dark armies I've done beforehand).

I have a Death Guard army that's quite slow and plodding, so this army will contain faster elements, as well as some of the more traditional. I've started with Jetbikes and mechanised squads, as it's different for me to move more than 6" a turn!

Mike Johnson

I chose iron warriors to hopefully get them to almost the same state as an iron warrior 40k army I had way back when the rules allowed basilisks and vindicators it was going well till I found out I could take garro and I'm now thinking of my Iron warriors sitting on the line of loyal and traitor

Carl Bottrell

Decided on Alpha Legion because they are actually loyal though misunderstood , I could give a thousand other reasons but it's a secret.

So we've now entered phase two ramping it up to 750 points, no idea what I'll be fielding might look at a unit of blades and transport, but no doubt that will change!

And if you have any tips or tricks for 30 please let me know!!

January round up - Off to a flying start!

And in a blink its gone!

so this month I saw the launch of the Survivor series, the phat cats monthly challenge, as well as the mantic challenge, In the usual Anton fashion these were completed in the usual timely manner!

So the Scars challenge was some Emperors Children for 30K

these also nicely tied into the "Super" Edd's 2016 hobby challenge which I'm wandering over to warhammer world on Sunday to have a look at the armies that the guys have painted that I'm really looking forward to and I'll be taking loads of pics and get these up in a series of articles,



so with that one in the bag, it wasn't long before the mantic challenge was sorted, and I went a tad OTT with doing all the deadzone forge father bits that I had...

so a great start to the month and certainly go the momentum flowing!

So on to the phat cats challenge it was a single model, this was going to be a hard one as we've some very very talented individuals at the club, but rather than trying to paint a single model to a stupidly good standard I simply enjoyed myself and did an avatars or war lizardman and for good measure 9 guys to go with him,

not too sure where I'm going with these guys, the initial idea was for dragon rampart, might use them for AoS depending if I can squeeze it into my gaming calender.

so other projects that are running at the moment is 15mm war and empire, myself and a few of the old farts at the club went into a kickstarter back in 2014 and I've been starting to work my way though the models that have been sitting in a box for god knows how long,

so including what I did last month this will be a nice distraction from all the other stuff that I've got on the go! 

 and the final bits that I did in January was some orc commandos for panzerfaust,

these will be for the panzerfaust board for hammerhead at the begining of march that myself and Lee are working on, its gonna be a tight build but I plan on getting this one sorted and just to add on the pressure we've got a club board for hammerhead for Gates of Antares where I need to bash some bromites out for that one!

So onto the Pledge...

Bought - 2
Painted - 84
Differance + 82

a very good start to the year and my attempt to have a dry month worked resonably well, I've avoided most of the shiney kickstarters that are floating around at the moment so thats a result!

Panzerfaúst - The Snail breading shed,

I popped over to Rob's mid -December to drop off the snail house that I did and was handed the snail shed,

once again designed and built by the same chap who did the previous buildings, the detail on the model is superb and really well cast! 

I also got a set of the walls as well, previously when Rob mentioned that he'd sorted out a set of walls I wasn't overly bothered until I actually saw them and the snail shells within the brick work was brilliant! 

It took me a while to decide on how to paint the shed as I wanted it to look different from the previous buildings that I've done and after a but of a brain storming session with the guys and girls on the Panzerfaust facebook page of of the ladies suggested a mixed brick look so rather than thinking about it too much I just went for it!  

So after the initial colours were put down I gave it a wash and then a really light dry brush to bring the colours together, then it was onto the walls, I started off with a grey and after some feedback from a few different individuals I copied the shed multi brick effect onto the walls,

such a massive difference and looks so much better! 

so that's the terrain for panzerfaust all done so far so as and when Rob decided to commission more hopefully I'll get the chance to splash some paint on his terrain, I've been getting good feedback so it's good to know that I hit the nail on the head for the over all look!

Hitting the pile of unpainted stuff! - Deadzone Forge fathers

I've decided to try and actually get some of my previous stuff that I picked up via the first Mantic KS for deadzone sorted out before the next lot hits and whilst ruminging though a random box I found the forge fathers,

Now these were "free" unlocks as the KS went through its various stretch goals and I bought a dreadnought thing as a add on for the rule of cool factor!

So it started off with this as the initial pledge on the mantic madness monthly painting compo...

and a week or so later they were sorted! 

So I figured I might as well finish off the other odds and sods with the suit guys, 

and managed to crack them out in no time at all, 

so I decided to round them off with the miner looking chaps, 

The initial models painted in the blue was for a bit of a change and I simply carried the colour though out the rest of the army, the warpath KS pledge manager is no up and I'm tempted to add some more odd and sods but when I ask myself will I really use them, the sensible side of me tells me to calm down I've enough to sort out and the Anton side of me is telling me to go for it!

However I'm trying to have a dry month and see how far I can go without adding more to the unpainted pile that is slowly taking over the geek room!

As its near the end of the month I'm doing stupidly well and have bought 2 models to add onto existing armies!

However that doesn't mean I've been sitting on the PS4 for most of the month! I've painted a crazy amount of models where I've completed all my monthly goals, I'll explain more about that in the month end summary!

The Master plan 2016

New year new army and all that jazz!


So whats the plan for the new year -

The pledge is keeping me ploughing though the model count quite nicely and hitting the magic 1K last year gave me a real boost to start focusing rather than chopping and changing projects which I seem to be doing quite recently.

so what are these projects that I'm going to be working on?

Well The phat cats have managed to get a table at hammerhead in March and Phil wanted to run a game of Gates of Antares which gives me an incentive to finish off the bromites and also the table will be a desert style so that we can use it for the gorkamorka campaign that we've planned for the club in the next few months,

For Salute we've been asked to do a modern game in 15mm so we are just sorting ourselves out for that so watch this space on that one!

As a brucey bonus we have been approached by another company asking us to do a demo table for them so we've a meeting to discuss the breif and decide if we can pull off what they propose.

Throw in some panzerfaust for good measure and the demo team are going to be busy boys!

The hobby goal list I didn't really do anything on the list apart from the KOW army, so I'm not actually going to bother with a goal list as I'm quite bad when it comes to the butterfly effect and constantly chopping and changing so I can't plan two months ahead never mind 12 months ahead!

New systems -

Rather than looking for new systems I'm going to try something different this time round and that would be playing games that I've painted models for but not actually got my teeth into!

however kickstarter continued to be the bane of my wallet for 2015 and moving into 2016 I'm going to put the "ooohhhhh" factor on hold as much as possible and rather then going balls deep I'll be alot more picky,

so what kickstarters am I waiting for...

AVP - waiting on wave three stuff, enough said on that!
Merc's recon - only one year over due!
V-commando's - only 3 months over due
Open combat - only 6 months over due
Myth - due in *cough* July 
Specture technical - 5 months over due
Deadzone 2nd ed - due Jan
Devils run - due feb
Warpath - due Sep
Panzerfaust - due Sep

I'm sure that lot should keep me busy!!

I'll go into more detail with regards to projects and revel these as I actually decide what to do with them!

so what are you plans for the new year?