Tankbustas

Finally managed to get a game over the weekend, after a long break over the Christmas holiday. I dug out my orks to face their most hated enemies, the Tau - they hate them because they don't fight proppa, hidin and shootin and runnin away. It was a good game and it forced me to dig out my ork box. This is full of bits and half-started (and half-hearted) projects just crying out to be finished, which is exactly what I did. I now have a unit of tankbustas to add to my army, that should give those Tau vehicles something else to worry about.

The squad is based around the metal figures, with some additions from plastic troops. The plastics are handy because they can easily be made into more active poses, the metal figures tend to be walking and carrying their rokkit launchas. I just need a boss pole for the nob, because I can't imagine them escaping considerable fire power from the enemy, especially if they get lucky early in the game and take out a hammerhead. Now that would be a debut to remember.

Wood Elf Spellsinger

My painting has suffered a little recently as the midwinter break seemed to sap my enthusiasm. So my efforts on the elf army has reduced considerably, the result being that I have painted just one elf spellsinger in the past few weeks. In the picture she is accompanied by the high elf mage I painted a few weeks ago.

I'm not sure what I will paint in the army next. I'm just hoping that as the temperature warms my efforts will similarly increase!

End of another year

It's that time of year again. Switch on the TV and you will get news review of the year, hits of the year, gossip of the year, etc. So time for a not-very-original review of the year.

Dwarfs

I started in January by making three main resolutions. The first was to play a game with a fully painted 2000 point dwarf army. This one I managed to achieve, just about, the banners are still blank, but otherwise it's fully painted. It's not the 2000 point army I would prefer, so there's still plenty of work to be done. I have 2 or 3 units I would like to add to it, banners to finish, plus some character models I would like to get my brush on. Overall though, I would give myself a B+ for progress this year.

Chaos Warriors

My second resolution was to make a good start on the chaos warrior army, I was hoping to paint 1000 points. I made a good start, painting a unit of marauders, chaos warriors and hounds, a spawn and a couple of sorcerors. But then I got distracted by a new project and have not touched the chaos army since. A good start that ran out of steam. I think a C+ (could do better) is a fair assessment of that effort.

Orks

My third resolution was to paint the ork models bought in 2008, which included a trukk, tankbustas and other bits. Not only did I fail to do this, but I added more unpainted units to the army. A definite grade F (fail) for that army.

Elves

This was the reason for the slow progress on the chaos army. I suddenly discovered that I wanted to play elves again, after them sitting in my cabinet for several years. Not one to make things easy for myself, I decided to start a completely new army that could, in part, double as both Wood Elves and High Elves. Progress has been quite rapid, both armies are about 500 points each and I think the Wood Elves will expand very quickly.

For early 2010, I intend to concentrate on the Wood Elves, hopefully having a complete 2000 point army painted by Easter. After that, I will take stock, possibly continuing with the High Elves or maybe switching to the Chaos Warriors. There are also possibly some new ork models to be released, so maybe I will even switch back to them. Only time will tell.

Elves progressing nicely II

I don't seem to be able to post more than one picture in a single post, so here's another entry to show the progress so far on the high elves. As you can see, there are archers, shadow warriors, a bolt thrower, a lion chariot and a mage. Compare this with the previous post to see which models are being used in both armies.

Elves progressing nicely I

I am making good progress with the elves, despite suffering a bad cold which knocked me out for over a week! The dryads were really quick and easy to paint up - I will get together a tutorial when I paint the next regiment, probably next month. Here's a picture of the army to date, showing dryads, glade guard, wardancers and waywatchers/scouts. I will probably concentrate on the wood aspects of the army for the next few weeks, so more dryads, a branchwraith and a treeman to come.

Speed painted dryads (preview)

Here's a fairly bad photograph of a dryad, one of ten I painted in the last couple of days. They are so easy to paint up quickly and to a decent standard. I am hoping to construct and paint another ten in the coming week. I also have some wardancers that I think would be fairly easy to complete. If I can get twenty dryads and a dozen wardancers painted in the next few weeks, it will be a solid start to the Wood Elf only section of the elf army.