My last post showed off a proxy 40k Chaos crab-walker engine that I built mostly with just a few bucks' worth of scrap and thrift-store toy parts. I've now got paint on the thing, and not just primer! I'm not done painting it, but I think it's already looking like a pretty good return on the investment for the scratchbuild.
So. To purchase an official GW "Defiler" crab-walker engine for my growing Chaos warband would cost $100 Canadian. Or ... I could build this thing, using greeblies from the trash and bits box and maaaybe $3 in toys from the thrift store.
And yes, the lower layer was a toy figurine of that spider manager dude from "Monsters, Inc."
As I mentioned last time, things have been kinda rough lately -- but creativity has been a source of great comfort. In particular, despite a hectic year, I've been working on my goal to make 2024 a year of "upping my game" when it comes to crafting.
Here's a WIP shot of a recent project. My WIP Warhammer Chaos Marine warband, the "Knights Aberrant," were in need of a transport vehicle. Since I have no Rhino or Land Raider model in the right scale, and since I didn't fancy shelling out $$$ for an official kit, I crafted this thing entirely from household junk, bits of old toys or dollar-store crud, hobby supplies, and a really obscene amount of glue and gap-fillers. I still plan to add spikes for the "dozer blade" and a few other bits, but this is pretty much the whole shebang -- sans paint, of course. I'd love to spraypaint this immediately, but below-freezing temps and soaring humidity stats this week don't look very conducive to that goal. Usually, these sorts of things look much better once they have a uniform coat of paint or primer.
This has some rough spots, but I really like it. It's always satisfying to have an ambitious build like this come together ok.
Initially, I planned to use a larger, used toy vehicle (from the thrift store) and add bits on to make the proxy vehicle. In the end, I decided that other one would be too large. My secret, evil plan is to use these 28mm Chaos Marines as "true-scale" Astartes in games where "mortal" humans, like cultists and imperial guard troopers, come in 1/72 scale. I've been monkeying with the possibilities quite a bit, and I'm very enthusiastic. This lets one deploy a couple stands of multi-based, cheap plastic infantry as a unit, and then use a single Space Marine figure as a "counts-as" squad of its own -- and suddenly, you're saving money, making room for bigger battles, AND making Space Marines finally look and act on the table the way they're "supposed to" in the (contemporary) lore. The plan is to use some of the advanced options in Grimdark Future, which have us covered for this sort of thing (that's an affiliate link, btw).
Happy gaming!
Still here!
I had hoped that this might be a fairly active year for the blog. As it turned out, however, it's been a really challenging, draining year on the personal front. This mostly involves a lot of overlapping chronic health issues in the household, which have required an enormous amount of time and energy to address on top of the rest of life. Oh, and I'm also writing a passion-project book as part of my 'real world' profession at the same time, so ... all around, it's been a corker of a year. On the flip side, some really good and beautiful things are happening because of all that work and energy-investiture, so I'm paradoxically very grateful for much of what we're experiencing, while also chronically exhausted in my emotional reserves. Recent world events have not diminished the stress levels, either.
With all that in play, I've had to adapt my hobby activities. Running my main campaign got too mentally draining, so it's on hold. Instead, I've transitioned to playing or running the occasional one-shot. However, I've found great comfort in doubling down on the crafting side of the wargaming/minis hobby. Putting down the scholar's pen and picking up a bunch of material things to work with my hands has proven vitally refreshing this year. I've set myself a goal of "upping my crafting game" this year, and so far I'm really pleased with the results. I've picked up and learned how to use more specialized materials, like Milliput and Green Stuff. I've become far more adventurous, creative, and unorthodox in my approach to kitbashing character minis, vehicles, and terrain. All this has been a source of real comfort during a season that isn't quite so much "bad" as "really hard."
So: I am still here - and I do NOT consider the blog to be 'on hiatus' - I do have a variety of thoughts about things to share, related both to RPGs and to wargaming. I'm redesigning an old dungeoncrawl of mine for a local community one-shot later this month, on the one hand, and doing some weird things to 40k armies that I absolutely love on the other. :-) But some of what I hope to share soon will reflect the quirky directions I've been taking things lately. I sometimes hesitate to share my wargaming stuff here, since my sense (possibly inaccurate?) is that my 'readership' are more invested in the RPG side. But anyway, please bear with what I do have to share for a while. :-)
I'm grateful to all who've kept up an interest in this blog over the years. Cheers, and happy gaming!
One of life's small pleasures: imagining a fun scratchbuild or kitbash, and then seeing it come to fruition. This little thing is a tank-sized "Chaos Deathwheel" that I plan to use as a proxy ("counts as") Land Raider variant in my tiny Iron Warriors army for playing Epic 40k.
The long weekend for Queen Victoria Day gave the kids some extra time off school, and gave us a reason to ponder the scope of imperialism - and what better way to do that than by diving back into Epic: 40,000? As it's been close to a year since we ran Epic, we went slowly and I messed up a few special rules, but we had fun. We ended up calling a draw in Turn 3 (real life beckoned) but I think next game should go faster.
No Legions Imperialis for us; we play the old 3e Epic: 40k rules. Some deride 3e as too simplistic but we find it offers plenty to manage, and allows satisfyingly grand tactical movement. This was a 2500-pt Planetary Assault battle, with about half my foe's army arriving via drop-pod. Scenes from the carnage follow.
 |
| A worn, colossal imperial monument overlooks the field of battle |
 |
| Center-frame, a shuttle prepares to evacuate staff from the Imperial Cathedral. |
 |
| My kitbashed Traitor Knights finally see action, sweeping Astartes dogs from a hilltop objective |
 |
| Yes, that's better now. However, see all those scratchbuilt Dark Elder bikes and barges at top of frame? |
 |
| A drop-pod landing by ~half a company of Marines shattered my Drukhari detachment, boo-hoo... |
 |
| Battle rages elsewhere. "Is that Daemon Primarch Perturabo advancing on our position?" "Yes - and unpainted, too! Keep firing!" |
 |
| In the Grim Darkness of the 41st Millennium, there are big stompy robots. |
 |
| A double-drop landing surrounds my primary Iron Warriors detachment, but I throw most of them back in a fierce shootout. |
Deep in the Accursed Wastes, at the heart of a ruined city forgotten by all but the most learned, there stands a fading, azure monument to the glory -- or was it hubris? -- of an ancient, mythic conqueror. The arcane texts that frame that obelisk are said to recount his (mis)deeds ... or, perhaps, they reveal the only spell sufficient to keep the blood-soaked, Chaos-chosen ravager sealed in the Underworld. Centuries have passed ... and now it is time to renew the ritual, lest the lands drown again in blood...
I just finished the newest scratch-built terrain centerpiece for my gaming table. I'm pretty pleased with this one!
The statue on top isn't painted yet, but the obelisk/base is separate, so I can swap out different statues for different settings or scenarios.
For example -- switch out the statue and some surrounding scenery, and now it's a monument to the cruelty of a long-fallen Dark Eldar warrior -- whom the locals have mistakenly assimilated to an early imperial Saint.
This started life as a humble, semi-rigid plastic popcorn tub. I mounted it on a "foundation slab" of EVA foam, and then built up hand-cut foam blocks around the base.
I then cut up sections of corkboard to make the crumbling outer "veneer" layer, and added a plasticard slab to cover up some annoying modern plastic texture on top.
Basecoated the whole thing with spraypaint...
Then stippled darker gray to 'texture' the lower layers, and drybrushed everything with ivory/bone craft-paint (drybrushing heavily on the cork layers).
I used a gold-ink art marker to apply the 'arcane texts' along the sides, and then applied Army Painter "Magic Blue" speedpaint (their 1.0 version) to the off-white cork layers. A bit more cleaning up, grass tufts here and there, and I was done.
