"Derby" show 2017 - or WTF was that supposed to be?

Derby the last biggie for the Leicester Phat Cats Demo team....

We popped our demo cherry with a 20mm WW2 game Operation Goodwood and since then we've enjoyed each year scooping up various awards for best in show and best participation game over the years.

As a show Derby based at Donnington was always a good crack, however this year KR Cases took over the show and it was moved to Bruntingthorpe, the travel time for myself was the same however the access to the show was tricky as its not really close to anywhere so those who rely on public transport are scupped.

Even before the show it was looking dodgy as myself and a few of the other guys were attached to Warlord running a K47 game however this wasn't included in the master plan and we were crow barred onto the end of the bolt action torney area.

However we were on the opposite end of the hall to Warlord so the point of being a "demo" game was completely lost. However in hind sight this was a blessing in disguise as we had oodles of room compared to some of the other demo guys that I saw when I wandered round on the Sunday.

 So the table with a new funky sign from Pete at the club, I'm liking the logo!

a "few" Germans from Phil, all sorts of conversions! 

The Zeus was nice painted again by Phil, the mix of parts and the factory hull type colour was well executed!

the mighty Russians painted by yours truly! 

The Objective - Capture Tiger 13

So the next lot of photos are ones that I took on the Sunday on a quick run around, apologises in advance for not getting details of the games however I was truly impressed by the amount of effort that the guys and girls had put in, 

I remember the KS for this bomber add on and in the flesh they are massive!! 

WWX going for a relaunch, didn't get the chance to chat to the guys as some rude retard was moaning about the fact that they hadn't received their FREE 2nd ed book!

yea this was an interesting one.... the Derby Worlds home grown game, retailing at 70 quid, containing models from other manufacturers, the art work as laughable and they were apparently giving copies away at the end of the show if you had a demo! 

more of a terrain reference pic, I though the way that the trees were done was really clever. 

This is not a test from the Yorkshire guys, didn't get a chance to have a go but the table looked superb! 

Now this did make me wonder...  2 massive naval games and I stood around and didn't see any interaction with the masses. should shows put a maximum limit on games? 

So onto the "haul" 

as the show was fairly quiet on the Sunday I nabbed a copy of this from Oathsworn who were opposite the demo table and ended up reading a fair bit! 

I was on a roll this weekend and picked up all manner of random bits and bobs including the new Japanese for K47 

Yea the oathsworn book convinced me to drop some money on a "demo" set so I'll look forward to getting these done over the next few weeks!

and with the ever increasing post apocalyptic table I got various odds and sods from Spectre, ansty and iron pig.

So thoughts on the show...

Traders had a good mix, however the size of the isles was way too tight and even with my agility I was having to duck and dive like I was in a dodgeball game just to get through the masses.

Demo games needed more room, couldn't get into some of them due to being so close together

New venue well its in the arse end of nowhere, its too small for the amount of traders that were in the place, and according to sources its going to be at the same place for the next two years.

Derby was one of my "goto" shows for the year however that's now in jeopardy and only if I see massive changes for 2018, more than likely I won't bother wasting my time, I'd rather spend the energy, effort and money on the Hammerhead show.

And I'm back in the room!

2 months!

Good god best shake a leg and sort some posts out,

So what have I been upto for the last 2 months?

Well I've painted a massive K47 Army for the Derby show & Warlord open day.

Finished off Joes Cygnar WW2 themed army

I'll put up my thoughts on the Derby and Warlord open day on seperate  posts as I managed to snap some pics of both events,

And thats about it, I've been painting odds and sod here and there, So lets have a look at the last few months worth of pledges,

August

Bought 41
Painted 23
Differance -18

September

Bought 31
Painted 92
Differance +61

October

Bought 20
Painted 42
Differance +28

so a bit of a postive couple of months however my over all pledge is looking under threat!

2017 so far

Bought 504
Painted 448
Differance -56

56 models to break even for the year and that doesn't take into account Necromunda that goes up for pre-order on the 11th Nov, the annual trip to Crisis on the 4th Nov and any thing else that I happen to pick up.

I've no doubt I'll pick up the necromunda box set but apart from that I've not seen anything that grabs my attention so a couple of dry months won't do me any harm painting wise as I'm more than enough to keep me going!

Keep an eye for the Derby and Warlord Pics they'll be up in the next week or so.

30K 13th Legion the Ultramarines continue on the march to war!

Way back in March I showed off the start of the 13th Legion and I've realised that I've not done an update on these on the actual blog.

I've been posting the odd pic on my facebook page which seems to get more interaction than blog posts but that's another subject for another time!

So what have I been adding to the 13th?

well a 10 man assault unit was thrown into the mix for some fast moving cannon fodder, 2 command rhino's as well as 3 rhino's. The biggest add on to the legion is a deredeo dreadnought with lascannons for some anti flier action and because I don't do subtle I've gone for a talon of leviathans!

 
These bad boys come in at a mere 910 points with out the armoured ceramite, costing more than a warhound titan! however I've faced these a couple of times on the field and they are a pain in the arse, however three of them I'll be making no friends with these so it'll be maximum cheese lists only!

I've gone for 2 storm cannons that should take care of those pesky power armoured chaps and will cut through what ever is stupid enough to stand in front of them!

I've gone for 2 of the dreadnoughts armed the same with a siege drill and a grav flux, 

and onto the deredeo, this will be the focal point of my anti flier part of the army who can also fire ground based targets if needed.

 over I'm really happy with how the army is looking at really need to sort out a game with what I've got painted so far,

I've only one more element to finish off for the 13th and that would be a breacher squad with a landraider transport keeping in the theme of the whole army being mounted.

Roughly this is about 3500 points so I could stop however that's not going to happen! 

Once the breachers are done its the question of what to add next? I'm tempted to get a 6th  troop choice and then start looking at some fast attack choices as I've not seen alot of local players using bikes, jet bikes or landspeeders.

any thoughts on the above?

The Wraithguard continues.....

A couple of weeks ago I decided to dip my toe into the torney scene and played a 4 game 1000 point 40k torney.

I wasn't expecting to set the world of fire as my list building thought process consists of "oohhh that's cool" and build an army around a certain type of model or theme.

Overall the day was fairly good no real hassle with regards to rules and the like certainly need to play more of 8th and it hasn't put me off, in fact fuelled the fire with regards to GW stuff and I'm looking at factions and themed lists that I've not looked at for a long long time! 

For this I decided to take the wraith guard and that would involve actually getting some more of the bits and bobs done.

So  after a few sessions locked away from the GC I managed to crack out the following...

however I'm still playing catch up with the Eldar and due to the fact that I was doing blue on the wave serpent and had some left over I used the spare paint to get some base colours on the ultramaine bits I've had knocking about for a while. More on that when I've finished them off and done so other bits and bobs,

So some close up pics of the wave serpent, this was a challenge for myself with the big smooth surfaces as well as the main colour being yellow,

 

after some trial and error I managed to get it locked down to a point that I was happy with, 

I decided to go for some weathering on the model something that I've done on plenty of imperiam and ork models so I figured lets give it a crack on the wave serpent and it came out really well. 

you'll see in the back ground I've a fair few more wraith guard to crack out as well as a second wave serpent I also might have picked up a wraith knight.....

So onto the pledge!

July - the month of child care and crazy antics!

Bought - 19
Painted - 51

Difference + 32

so as well as the blood & plunder models as well as Joe's warmachine I did a test paint on some striking scorpions and finished some random models that I've kicking around for a while.

These I picked up from the Dr Who range from warlord games ages ago and only after starting to watch  the new series of Dr Who did I come across the Silence and I think they are great bad guys so another couple of sets and that should give me enough for a skirmish force just need to actually play a game!

these are the robots from White dragon that I picked up way back in Feb at Robin, designed for a 15mm sci-fi system I'll be using these for this is not a test until the White dragon rules hit the streets.

and that's it for the mean time, I'll be continuing on the 13th Legion and trying not to buy more random 40K stuff!!

Winter weathered Cygnar - Warmachine

One of the guys at the club asked me to crack out some stuff for him, Normally I don't bother with painting other people stuff as I have more than enough to keep me occupied however Joe's a good lad so I figured why not!

The original brief was WW2 style Americans and that mutated into a whitewash looking jack heavy army...

To be honest this threw me out of my comfort zone as I'd never tried that type of look before so off to you tube I went and after a few hours of learning new stuff I decided to go for it!

So the first batch, mainly all jacks, according to Big Joe this is a bit of a naughty list? means bugger all to me! 

The goblin guys were cool to paint and I made the skin colour a little lighter than I would normally do, the gamble paid off! 

No idea on the names of the jacks, but the same paint scheme was applied to each one and Joe's happy with them so all is peachy! Now its onto the infantry so I'll do that in units so I don't lose the will to live!

as "payment" I'm getting hold of a faction that's caught my eye,

not sure on the colour scheme yet so might have a mooch on google images and see what catches my eye!

arrgh me hearties! - Spanish Blood & Plunder

Well it would appear that the deadline that Lee gave me kick started my painting mojo!

Given a weeks notice I cracked out the Spanish that I got from the Blood and Plunder KS a while back, all that's needed for these is some transport and I'm done!

The models are painted to a fairly basic standard however the dirty and grubby look suits them well, I went with quite restricted colours.

The bases I did try something different though, rather than the usual sand, paint it brown base colour then two levels of high light I simply got some soft wash really watered it down and put it on the sand whilst the PVA was drying then let it dry over night, then a quick dry brush of yellow ochre and that was it! 

Currently firelock games have a second kickstarter running to add the Dutch, Pirates and the native Caribbeans as well as some extra ships into the product line.

www.kickstarter.com blood and plunder no peace beyond the line

go have a mooch and get involved!

June The Pledge, Crash and burn baby!

Well no easy way of looking at this month!

Bought : 139
Painted : 19

Difference : -120!

Yea I might have gone a bit bonkers on 8th Edition and got a load of pox walkers and not forgetting about the eldar they increased in the ranks as well.

Add on the fact that the weather has been scorching for the second half of June turning the geek room into a sauna I've done bugger all!

However rather than dwell on the doom and gloom at least I now have in incentive to get some stuff done with my blood and plunder Spanish that need doing by next weekend and the Derby show rapidly approaching so that's the K47 Russains that need cracking out.

Also with a 1000 point 40K torney over at Weekend Warlords I'm gonna be looking to field a fully painted force and maybe just may be I can get some "man points" for a nicely painted army!

Oh did I mention that school holidays start in two weeks.....

Operation Don't kill the GC will be great fun, now to try and teach her to airbrush......