Warhammer Fest 2014 - Long post with loads of photos!

Last Sunday saw the very first Warhammer Fest take place. It's the replacement for Games Day, which always seemed to receive a lot of stick, some rightly so, some not so much. I've always enjoyed the day out, heading off somewhere to go and look at some really geeky models and chat to friends and GW/FW staff.

The venue has now changed to the Ricoh Arena, attached to the Coventry City FC grounds, and it's a lovely building, way better than the NEC, and a bit better than the NIA from last year. The event was split over three floors. On the ground was the sales area, our first port of call when we arrived. The queue for Forgeworld was so small, and moved so quickly I ended up making the rash decision to purchase too many heresy mechanicum goodies. With that out of the way we grabbed our FW seminar tickets and headed to the 2nd floor to the FW area.

They had the usual layout of glass cabinets and tables, and it was really spacious, there wasn't much jostling to see into the displays, and there were a few new treats on show. Needless to say I was totally stoked to see the Ultramarines shoulder pads!

As well as all the bare resin they had a couple of new display boards, and the old ones there too. The Calth one blew me away, and even though the painting quality on the Ultramarines wasn't great, I spent a very long time staring and taking photos!

The mechanicum/Alpha legion display was also really cool too...

Stepping away from Forgeworld for a bit we had a look around the GW section on the 1st floor and to be honest I was very underwhelmed. There were a couple of cabinets, and I was never expecting any previews but they really could've done so much more. They had more boards and displays at the 40k open day.

We watched a few of the pods from the sidelines and the majority seemed to be aimed at younger ones, with topics such as how to build wracks. The one we did sit down and watch was Mark Bedford's how to speed paint an army. It was really interesting, and gave me a lot of food for thought, but I don't think I'll ever achieve five marines in an hour!

The golden demon cabinets felt a little empty, but they were well lit and there were some fantastic entries to look at.

Finally it's onto the Forgeworld seminar. This was rammed with so much good news and previews, most of which have already been spread far and wide across the internet. The Ultramarines plates made me wet myself a little bit, roll on next summer! And Alan Bligh was on top form with some hilarious quips.

And there you have it! It was well worth the £20 entry fee, and although it was a shame not to have book four in my hands I wasn't disappointed with what I saw. As always. FW put mainline GW to shame, I wonder if GW studio staff feel embarrassed when they see what they're allowed to do compared to their resin cousins. I'd recommend going for anyone that had been slowly put off by the issues the NEC events had.

1000 Point Mechanicum Heresy Army List

So here's the army list of what I went and bulk purchased in one go! I didn't have a clue as to the total points until I got it home, and it turns out I've got a quite nice chunk in the bag already.

HQ-
Magos Dominus on Abeyant, armed with a Rad Cleanser and Volkite Serpenta.
He's the stock Magos out at the moment, and such a great model.

Troops-
Thallax Cohort, armed with two lightning guns and one photon thruster.
An easy troops choice, and didn't fancy going for the multi-melta option just yet.

10 Tech Thralls, armed with Las-Locks.
A strange choice, being very expensive in monetary terms but ridiculously cheap in points. But they look so cool!

A Castellax Class Battle-Automata, armed with Mauler Bolt Cannon.
Since it's a non-compulsary choice I only went for the one so far.

Fast Attack-
3 Vorax Battle Automata, one armed with an Irad Cleanser.
The new kids on the block!

Well that's what I've got so far and comes to the grand total of 610 points. To edge it closer to the 1k mark I'm definitely adding in...

Heavy Support-
Thanatar Class Seige-Automata.
It's an absolute beast and a very nice looking kit.

That leaves me with around 150 points left, and this is where my decisions become a little less easy. I've narrowed it down to two choices...

Another Thallax Cohort.
Pros- Easy on the wallet, and would give me a very solid troops base.
Cons- Already duplicating squads at such a low points level. Not exciting to paint another unit.

A Krios Battle Tank.
Pros- Stunning kit. The lightning cannon is a monster.
Cons- Is very expensive on a points/pound comparison to other choices.

So there we have it. If you've got an opinion about my list, and the impending choice please drop me a comment, it would be very much appreciated!

Heresy Ultramarines Paint Scheme Dilemma

I've always painted my Ultramarines in a dark blue. In the current GW paint range I'd use Kantor Blue. This never turned out too dark on my 40k army.

I haven't done an awful lot of work on my 30k army, but I have basecoated a lot of it in the Kantor colour. Before the wash it looks great, but on the few minis I've washed they come out so dark, almost black!

Since watching Mark Bedford's speed painting pod at Warhammer Fest I'd been running ideas through my mind about how to get my army painted quickly. Then it struck me, I could maybe solve both issues, speed and darkness, in one go. GW make a can of Macragge Blue spray paint!

So I've painted up a couple of quick test models to make an actual comparison. The newer lighter mini certainly looks more like an Ultramarine and less like a Night Lord, and depending on how good this spray basecoat is it could revolutionise my painting. I've taken a few photos with different lighting conditions so you can see the difference, and all opinions and feedback would be greatly appreciated, cheers.

Mechanicum Castellax Class Battle-Automata

I'm on a roll at the moment, and am really hoping I don't reach burn out by the time I get the whole army painted! The Castellax is the bigger brother to the Thallax and so I already had my method sorted in my head and actually managed to get him finished in the space of one night!

I went for a basic armament this time around, keeping the Mauler cannon and bolters, and while I'm quite happy with the pose I'm going to get a bit more adventurous when I come to fleshing out the maniple.

Mechanicum Miniature Monday - Thallax Cohort

Last weekend was the very first Warhammer Fest, and Forgeworld had a number of pre-release items on offer. I was very tempted to go for the beautiful Solar Auxilia section, but in a moment of madness I went for a small allied contingent of Mechanicum instead.

These Thallax are the first models I've finished for the fledgling force, and I think it's the fastest I've ever completed something for date of purchase to on the shelf.

They were a treat to build, except the power cables, and didn't need very much clean up at all. All that's left to do is apply some mechanicum transfers, but it seems that FW don't make a sheet, and I'm not prepared to buy the Iron Hands one just yet!

I'll be trying to get more of my army finished asap and probably won't wait for Mondays to roll around to post them, and I'll put up a post about the list I'm thinking about which would be awesome to get some feedback on!

Back once again...

Well it's time to get my arse in gear and actually do some blogging. Those of you who read my last post about returning to writing will be wondering what happened (maybe). Essentially we actually had quite a nice summer here so most of it was spent out in the sun having fun, but now the nights are growing longer I'm returning to the hobby with fire in my belly and a brush in my hand.

I'm well and truly settled into the new man cave, and I've managed to amass even more miniatures to slap some colour on to. So there's going to be plenty of painting updates flashing up as and when I get projects finished.

So what have I really been up to? I went to Warhammer Fest the other week, and there'll be a write up coming soon. I've splashed out of a small allied contingent of Mechanicum for my heresy army. I decided to totally ditch any attempt to get into Fantasy, I've already parted with my Tomb Kings and the Dwarves are going up on ebay tonight. Trying to find the time for two systems, let alone three, was just getting too cray cray and to be honest the fantasy setting never grabbed me in the same way that the 40k and 30k universes have. I saw Guardians of the Galaxy which is a serious contender for best marvel film ever (sorry avengers). Believe it or not I'm still trudging through Angel Exterminatus, but I'm determined to have that finished before the week is out. I've stopped buying White Dwarf Weekly. Ten quid a month isn't a lot of money, but the format just wasn't working out for me. I'm still on the hunt for vintage issues though to complete my set.

In the pipeline for the blog then I'm going to refresh the look of it, to breath some new life into it, I'll be trying to complete models at a steady pace, and hopefully there'll be a few battle reports coming soon. I also want to get back into my creative writing but now I don't have to commute to work there's less time for that strangely!

Anyways, I've rambled on for long enough now. There'll be a miniature monday coming up in the next few hours, so stay tuned, and thanks for bearing with me!