A Hive Mind awakens...Some old school 2nd Ed Tyranids

I have wanted a 2nd ed 40k tyranid force for a very long time. My first models for it were the genestealers from Space Hulk, and a lictor I bought at Intergalactic Trading Zone in the mid to late 90's.

 When a friend from the gaming group decided to give 2nd ed 40k a go, I jumped at the chance to paint up some. So here are my efforts, in the original schemes too.

 

You can't have a legal list without a Hive Tyrant. Picked up a metal one and fixed it up. Contrasts do a lot of heavy lifting here, but I really enjoyed the wet blending. Also my ancient lictor finally got some love it deserved after 30 years in my bits box.

I love the original hormaguants. I do want a lot more!

Some old metal warriors. Again, the blending was a lot of fun here. 

My force all ready to go. My Blood Angels are looking very hard pressed! I think they needs some reinforcements!
 

Anyways, thanks for looking. I do plan on taking photos of our game when we get round to it.  

Blood Angels 2nd Edition update

It has taken me a little time, but I have finally finished s bunch of Blood Angels. I have mainly painted these at night during the work week, which is rare as I normally have no energy to do anything other than just crash, so it was nice to be productive.

 

This was a very generous gift from a friend in exchange for basing his army. Unfortunately it was one metal marine short, but since their was a battle standard model, thought it would fit one nicely.

I also got to finish my librarian in terminator armour.

He can now join me in 2nd ed, and also in Space Hulk.

 

Finally, I also finished this model. Compulsory in 2nd ed for the vehicle access, I now need some vehicles to add to the force.

This does now give me about 1000 points of painted models for the Blood Angels. Very pleased with that!

Thanks for looking!
 

Mordheim Maneater Warband

Apologies for the hiatus. As always I have been busy with painting, just not with updating. I feel that mentally sometimes I think typing this up is harder than it really is! 

Still, the new year saw me get really into Bolt Action, but I will post my models of that another time.

This past Friday, the gaming group started a new Mordheim campaign, Empire in Flames. For this campaign, I decided to paint my awesome old Imperial Ogres and Halflings and use them as a Maneater warband. I mainly did this as I have wanted to paint them for ages, and I can now use them for my Empire army in TOW.

I decided to do them in different uniforms for the different provinces, as they are mercenaries and I thought it would look cool. Very happy with them.

I also painted up 2 of these for the warband. I figure in normal games they will accompany my cavalry as Heimerdinger's big cats. They had to be tigers as that is my sons favourite animal.

Some halflings done for the warband. They count as gnoblar fighters, but I have had these sitting there for decades. Unfortunately I only have 7, so I will have to track down a command group one day.

 An here are some shots of the night. 10 players, 5 games on the go. My terrain was a big work in progress, but since my warband is complete, I can focus on that.

 

This amazing board was a pleasure to play on. 

Ogres first game, I went straight for the heights!

Ogre game 2 against some Skaven. 

Was good fun and lots of laughs. 

 Thanks for looking. 

 

Squad Lazarus joins the 3rd Company

I have finished the first 5 models of Squad Lazarus. This is an old 2nd edition metal squad that was a gift from a friend, which is very much appreciated!

It was great going back to these old poses. I tried to model them off the old Rogue Trader Blood Angels army that was featured in White Dwarf so long ago. It has been a lot of fun going back to the old 2nd edition sculpts. I hope to get more painted and try and get some in the gaming group to give it a go.

 I have the next five lined up now so I am hoping to add to them. I do need some adversaries for them to face, so I have something in the pipeline for them.

 Thanks for looking! 

More 2nd Edition Blood Angels

I got round to painting my very old Blood Angels commander, the original Captain Tycho. 

 I played Blood Angels a lot in 4th edition, and I remember hunting down the old metal models even then as I preferred them over the new ones. A lot of that old collection I have dug out and now repurposed it for a pile of 2nd edition Blood Angels.

 The first of these repaints, to add to the terminators had to be my old commander. I have been watching a lot of Minisodes, the YouTube channel, which has a lot of great 2nd edition narrative battle reports, particularly with the Blood Angels and their missions on Armageddon's 2nd war. 

I got into contact with Ed, and he kindly told me how he did his Tycho, as I tracked down the original recipe in the old White Dwarf, but couldn't find or convert the paints. 

 I undercoated white and then coated all the armour in Iyanden Yellow contrast. The it was Snakebite and Cygor contrasts for the recesses. Finally Screaming Skull for the highlights.

 I am very happy with the result, though not as good as Ed's, it still looks pretty cool. I am hoping to get him on the battle field in another test game for my gaming friends, when I have enough painting models!

 Anyways, thanks for looking.  

Space Hulk! Back to the Sin of Damnation

I have been keen to take my gaming group into the dark corridors of Space Hulk. I have been working on the models for the last month or two and finally managed to get some to give it a go. Of course, I played the 1st edition with them, as I feel that is the best edition. 

 

First up, I touched up my old unit of terminators. These have been in service for a long time, so it was good to get them out and give them some love again. I added the banner pole and banner to complete the look for this venerable squad.

Simple scheme for the genestealers. I used the recipe from Minisodes to get them done. They really do look effective with large numbers!

The set up for the game night. Three decided to go into the depths. The timer and pressure of the genestealers made for a very tense, but rewarding atmosphere for the game. Despite losing the whole squad, the flamer marine made a last ditch attempt to run to the target room and successfully achieved his mission, before drowning in a tide of genestealers. 

I know others are now interested in trying it, so hopefully I can get some more action pictures next time. 

Thanks for looking!
 

Some of the new Black Templars

 Some friends in the gaming group wanted to play some new 40k, rather than the superior 2nd Ed (but I will bring them round).

 So I finally got the new Black Templar models. As always, very cool designs. The banner was challenging, but I got there in the end. Thankfully I had chains on a transfer sheets and used to the old staple of micro sol and micro set on them. Quick jobs to get them painted and on the table top.

I do want to introduce my gaming group to the joys of Space Hulk so that is my next focus. Hopefully I should have an update soon.

Thanks for looking. 
 

More 2nd Edition Space Wolves

I touched up a combat squad of Blood Claws I have had since the mid 90's. I am very happy with how they came out. Now I just need to work on the next five.

 Great to get more 2nd Edition painted. I have more plans for 2nd edition, so hopefully I will be able to keep the motivation going.

 Thanks for looking! 

Old Predator for 2nd Edition 40k

I finally finished touching up my old Predator for my 2nds Edition Space Wolves. As a young one, I was a little too keen for battle damage, so I had to clean it up a little. I also made a push mold of some old FOrge World doors to place at the front. Otherwise, I was quite happy with how it turned out.

 

 

 

 Thanks for looking!

 

Empire update and a Black Templar

The battles in the Badlands campaign have been ramping up. I really need to post some battle reports of them, which I shall do shortly.

 

In the meantime, I have been plugging away at some small hobby.

 

A friend printed some pavises which I really wanted to use for my crossbowmen. I thought they would be very cool. I did some research of some medieval ones and picked a design I liked. I wasn't too confident with the freehand, but I did source some Holy Roman Empire transfer that looked like they fit the job. Finally finished them today!

 

 

Very pleased with how they turned out.

 I also finished the Empire special character on foot, von Lowenhacke. An absolute beast of  model. 

 

Great model, though I did lose a part of the helmet, but I don't feel it is too obvious. 

Lastly, I completed another Templar, just for a bit of fun. 

I think my next updates will be posting the battles from the Badlands campaign we are in the midst of.

Thanks for looking.