On a roll

We are definitely making progress.. which is just as well because I have less than a month(!) until the PBLLGMU (Pre Black Library Live Gaming Meet Up) where this Imperial Guard army will be blooded!

And yes, I am excited.

And now I have ARTILLERY!

BOOM!!

FINALLY!

Its finished. Oh yes… only 14 months after I got it as a Christmas present. haha

I’m pretty happy with it, also!

fly, fly you beautiful thing!

Cadia WIP

So, here’s how I’ve been getting on!! There is plenty still to do. The Kasrkin is my basing experiment – I think it looks like snow (tell me it looks like snow)

The Vostroyan is the support for the Cadian hard-hitters, and the Kasrkin Sergeant is just an awesome model!

The Captain is going to be the leader of the 1000pt force. If I upgrade it he might get demoted for a more imposing leader, but for the time I think he has just the right amount of chippiness!

Hope you like them, all comments welcome!!

Dead Men Walking/Happy New Year

Yes, this is a new year post (welcome to 2011), but it is also a book review. To the latter, first.

As usual, I was attracted to this book by the cover… see the review of Redemption Corps for more cover-related book reading.

I hadnt read any Steve Lyons before, but I have been on a bit of an Imperial Guard spree of late, reading the aforementioned Redemption Corps, Cadian Blood, Gunheads and now Dead Men Walking in quick succession, and so I was keen to get Steve Lyons take on the Imperial Guard.

And I’ve got to say I was impressed. Without giving the game away, Lyons takes an enigmatic and undeveloped guard regiment, the Death Korps of Krieg, and takes a good hard look at them. It is perhaps the first of the guard books I’ve read where you get a true sense of the futility of the Imperium’s struggles against the hostile galaxy that surrounds it. The attitude of the Death Korps to this situation is apparently inhuman; but through the viewpoints of other’s outside the regiment, Lyons does a great job of showing them in a new light.

There is also a starring turn by a Commissar attached to the Death Korps regiment, who allows Lyons to delve a little deeper into the makeup on the Death Korps and why they are like they are.

Lyons doesnt pull any punches. I wont give the ending away, but if you were looking for a cutesy, happy one, all I can really say is that you might be disappointed. However I think that is no bad thing, and as such this book provides a brilliantly realised slice of the Imperium and of the wider, 40k universe as a whole.

I would heartily recomend it.

And yes, it is now 2011. A new year has dawned. I am not making any resolutions. I am not vowing to blog more, I shan’t be joining a gym and I certainly won’t be taking up a new hobby. You know, like pole-dancing…

However I do intend to finish painting my Imperial Guard and try and write a novel by March. More on that later. Its not a resolution though, so dont try and hold me too it!

Happy New Year to you all. I hope it brings something worth remembering, and nothing you’d rather forget.

Instant Justice/Inspiration

Everyone loves a good political officer…

Well they dont really, but this Games Workshop Commissar paints up very well!

The business end of the bolt pistol

Project Valkyrie 2… or dont paint what you cant see!

So, all this interior detail is great. I mean it really is. But as these next few pictures will show you, painting stuff and then sealing it away for ever could probably be classed as wasted effort.

I am, however, progressing. The nose cone is constructed and painted, and I have attached the wings and engines to the main compartment… all I need to do now is stick on a few more bits and pieces, like the undercarriage and rocket pods and I can undercoat and paint.

I believe the words “epic” and “fail” apply here!

Project Valkyrie: Part 1

So I’ve had this model sat in its box for nearly a year now. But after much procrastination and pontification, I have finally plumped for an Imperial Guard army, and so the Valkyrie is out of its box and into production. Which is just as well, as I have ten stormtroopers on mail order and those boys wont be happy having to walk anywhere!

The Valkyrie is a fantastic kit, so fantastic in fact that there is loads of detail on it that you will never be able to paint if you stick it all together first. And so I am painting it in sections, and first section to be completed is the pilot and copilot.

Here are some photos. I painted the control panels separately and then glued the who ensemble together. The next stage is going to be to build the nose-cone around it, and then paint that. And yes, it will have sharks teeth on it!

I love to fly! *tear*

Don't look at the camera.. D'oh!

What do all these buttons do... ooh look, a butterfly!