Sisters of Battle Exorcist Tank

Just for fun, I'm bringing you one of my older projects today - Namely this rather nice Exorcist that I converted for my old Sisters of Battle force.

It's basically the Immolator Tank with a few spare missiles that I got on eBay attached (I think they come from the Dark Eldar plane, not the Voidraven, the other one). The turret has also been reshaped and modified to allow for this. I then built some extra armour for the front using the spare doors from the Rhino sprues. All in all, I'm surprised how good it looks!

Behold - The Executioner Tank (Leman Russ)

Another addition to my Imperial Guard force. Unfortunately, It mostly just overheats and explodes  - with 5 "Gets Hot" rolls a turn it's totally doomed. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be better one of these days!

St Andrews Wargaming: Better Know A Blogger- Part 17: Tabletop Apocalyps...

I thought I'd share my newfound internet fame with everyone who might've missed it the first time.


I was recently interviewed by St Andrews Wargaming for one of the popular "Better Know a Blogger" articles. I've added a link below - hopefully you'll find it as amusing to read as I did to answer the questions.




St Andrews wargaming: Better Know A Blogger- Part 17: Tabletop Apocalyps...: This week's Better Know a Blogger features Will (AKA Blazmo) from Tabletop Apocalypse .  Will is another relative newcomer to th...

Slaanesh Daemonettes

Not too long ago I decided that my Emperor's Children could use a contingent of Slaanesh Daemons to back them up. Luckily, I managed to get hold of some of the old metal Daemonettes on eBay for a reasonable price (about £20 for 10). For those who don't know, they sometimes go for several times that sum and I'm sure that right now there will be a "buy it now" listing for 10 asking a good £100.

I actually quite like the plastic ones too, but I have used them a lot in the past and in various conversions, so I wanted some different ones just to differentiate them aesthetically. On the table-top I was thinking I might take Daemonology and try to summon them as it could be a good laugh. Either that or I might do a small allied detachment added on to the main force. Only time will tell with that one, but I'm sure it'll be fun.

I really wish that Games Workshop would make a chaos supplement people actually want to see. People play chaos in 2 ways - a mixed Black Legion type list with all the gods represented, or as fluff armies that only have units of one of the gods (e.g. Nurgle only, or Slaanesh only). Why they haven't made a supplement for these types I don't know. They did do Khorne Daemonkin, but then never made any for the other gods. I quite like the idea of a proper Thousand Sons/Tzeentch  force, but at the moment it isn't happening. Obviously I'd like to see a proper Slaanesh codex the most. I'm not asking for it to be super-competitive, but a few bonuses and formations that rewarded you for taking a themed force would be nice.

Now I just have to go and paint the other 4... what "6" is the official number for Slaanesh, what do you mean it isn't a legally field-able unit!

Behold - The Chimera Tank(s)

After Sharing my infantry with you all I thought it would only be appropriate to share their rides. I've done 2 Chimeras for the force so far. Luckily I had a few Chaos bits about the place to suitably pimp them out in.

Like most people I use them as a barely mobile heavy weapons platform. The armour 12 doesn't hurt either, and they're one of those units that I tend to use to get the job done once I've finished firing the choicer things - soften up those targets with a punishing artillery volley and then splatter what's left with wildly inaccurate, but unnecessarily punishing Multi-Laser and Heavy Bolter fire. The Heavy Stubber is always a good choice too; cheap and with a good range it almost always pays for itself and then some (plus 9 shots from a transport is rather wince inducing for most opponents - except for Eldar!

You can see I've used an evil summoning circle to bring you these tanks again. It just looks so scenic!

The second tank, sadly without the mighty stubber - let it never be said I wasn't known for my sportsmanship!

Painting with References - Knock it up another Notch!

Lately, in an attempt to improve my painting techniques I've been introducing some real life references into my work to try and get a more dynamic and interesting feel.

It all started when I bought a set of Scibor's Elven Ruins Bases. They feature a series of statue heads, and I wanted to do something cool with them. With a bit of a lack of inspiration coming from my own imagination, I thought I'd look at some statues on the internet and see if inspiration struck. Luckily, it did and I was really inspired by the green lichen and mossy mildew green stuff. It really made me want to have a go at it myself, so I layered in a few green washes, first with GW's Biel-Tan Green Shade and then with Vallejo's Olive green. It really didn't take very long, but the results were quite striking and a lot more interesting than the plain sandstone-coloured statue head that I'd been working on.

Reference and base side by side.

It was while playing the PS1 classic "Soul Reaver" that I had another revelation. I decided to take the colours from the game and did a model inspired by the palette and look of the game. It's like "Art imitating life, imitated by art" ... or something!

Now if only someone would make an actual miniature of Raziel! If they did a Soul Reaver the miniatures game on Kickstarter it'd be "just shut up and take my money" time!

The greens have made for a really nice and scenic addition to both of the bases and it's all thanks to looking at a few pictures on the internet, so next time you're struggling to think of how to paint something, try looking at a picture or two - it might be surprising where you'll end up!

Traitor Guard Infantry

Some of the finished units from my converted Traitor Guard force. There are 20 men in total and the process of converting all of those metal Vostroyans was more than a little bit painful!

Conversion wise, I've basically head-swapped or de-bearskinned every single one of them, well except for the big guy with the Autocannon who is converted from some old Chaos Warrior and Ork bits. They were a lot of work compared to using plastic Cadians or something, but I like the look I got in the end, although some Imperial Symbols do remain - I guess they're newly turncoat!



The pictures below are from the second squad. One of the things I love about playing Guard is how expendable your men are. At 5pts each they can actually be called successful just by taking bullets for your more costly units. They are actually reasonably survivable too for their points range. The 5+ save isn't too bad and if you get them behind a nice wall they'll stay in the fight long after they deserve to be dead.

Probably the best part is the system of Orders they have these days - getting 3 shots a man can really get some mileage out of your lasguns - remember if the squad can kill about 3 or 4 marines they get their points cost back. The sheer number of shots is also good for my legendary bad luck!

Some people might say a lascannon and a flamer is a bad weapon combination. I saw who cares and fire another unit of cheap men at them. There's always more where that came from!

Behold - The Basilisk Tank!

Probably my favourite tank of all time in 40k. I still remember flipping through copies of White Dwarf as a kid and staring at the pictures and thinking "one day when I have enough money!". Needless to say years later when I started my Traitor Guard force it was an essential purchase. You still can't argue with the power of an Earthshaker Cannon either (basically a S9 Battle Cannon with indirect fire).

I also figured that it was probably time I shared some pictures of my Guard on here as I have alluded to playing them once or twice. Paint wise, they're one of my easier schemes as I have tried to keep it fairly simple. It seems to be important when you're painting an army that can be pretty horde like, as there are going to be so many men to get through that you don't want to be bogged down. The part that stands out for me is actually the silver of the gun-barrel as I think it looks very realistically metallic - like brushed steel. It was actually just dry-brushed round and round the barrel with darker to lighter metallic pants, but I really like how it came out. 

You really do need a lot of models to play them properly anyway, as having access to some fairly decent, but incredibly cheap infantry is a massive strength, purely for the number of wounds you can put on the field, as well as the number of bullets!

Theme wise the force if sort of Traitor Guard with a bit of Dark Mechanicus thrown in. I started them before there was an actual Adeptus Mechanicus range available, so it was an excuse to do a bit of conversion work about the place and have some fun with the force.