Unboxing - European Pikemen

Every day is like Christmas when you’re a butterfly...you never know which of the many (​Brother Handro: ​​many.....​)​ orders will arrive in any given day...

Despite appearances​, mainly the many hundred pewter soldiers grey and neglected in my hobby room, I love the Historical pirate era game Blood and Plunder! The team at Firelock games have designed and developed a stunning system which plays well, is easy to pick up, and (​Der H:​​ best of all...​) contains pirates!

Recently Firelock tried a new funding system; Firestarter. This system allowed pre-ordering with a view to being charged once a threshold was reached. Think of it as Kickstarter light!​

The result of this process is these gorgeous European Pikemen: ​

Two sets of 4 identical casts, each comes with a length of shaped metal for a spear NB not suitable for children/cats​!​ The unit sizes in B&P range from 4-12 usually so 8 is a nice number to get started with.

The casts are clean as always, and have some nice details making them generic enough to be ‘european’ without obvious restriction to which european faction.​

Ill probably put there guys together pretty soon, but painting them....well, that is the eternal struggle.​

I shall here VOW to paint my Blood and Plunder collection in the autumn, following the 2019 Melos campaign.... after all, I have 1000pts of Krieg and 1000pts of mechanicum to finish.​

Der H 

Thought for the day:   “Take what you can. Give nothing back!”

Blood and Plunder: No Peace Beyond the Line

It. Is. Here! 

Firelock Games’ 28mm historical pirate game is something really special. I went all in for their first Kickstarter, so when the second arose I had to go big or go home!

[Brother Handro: “...is that why there’re still hundreds of lead coloured pirates in the basement?”] 

I’m a big fan of Kickstarter. It gives smaller companies the space to expand their range or start their business with guaranteed funds and a new player base from the off. I joined Alex Huntley’s 2nd and 3rd kickstarters for Arcworlde [Der H: “and haven’t painted much of that either!”  ] and always find that, with wargaming at least, the enthusiasm of the creators gets stuff finished and shipped out pretty promptly!

This Kickstarter is BIG, huge box...glad I took the landy to pick it up. 

Such goodies! 

The contents are far too numerous to list here, however I will post some pictures of the haul:

The ships are, as with the first Kickstarter, beautiful. The Paragua and Bark are relatively small, and the canoa are essentially glorified longboats with some extra rules.

The fun starts with the Fleut and the Galleon. The Galleon is a BEAST of a model, 4 decks and an impressive chunk of resin. It sounds hollow so I’m tempted to look into putting a Bluetooth speaker in to play dramatic navel music [Der H:   “Think master and commander...”  Brother Handro:   “yeeees! Do it!” ]

The faction boxes are a nice touch; the previous KS had loose figures!

The less clear miniatures are assorted characters, with beautifully crafted cards, and civilians. Always nice to see the disguised female pirates and monkey with blunderbus make an appearance! 

Like a kid in a toy shop....actually, exactly like that... 

The Deluxe/special edition/combined rule book is beautiful! Crafted with a raw cut edge... 

...it is styled to represent the style of many books of the era; Great work Firelock! 

I feel it will be a few weeks at least before I get my teeth stuck in. Exams, real life and the release of Titanicus have occupied much of my time. All being well the new year will see much more hobby time, but until then we shall plod along!

Der H 

Thought for the day:    “To wives and sweethearts; may they never meet”

Adeptus Titanicus arrives!

So, like many of you, we have both been suckered int...dutifully bought the infamous Grand Master Edition of GW's new Adeptus Titanicus range, (Der H -'Did we not have enough to do?) and I couldn't wait to get started, getting a Warlord built on release day...of course it wasn't until 3 days later I realised I'd put the lower legs on back to front...

Airbrush stage finished, onto the nitty gritty...

It is definitely easier to paint the armour panels whist still on sprue, especially if you're airbrushing.

You will be heartily sick of painting armour trim by the time you finish...

...but once it starts to come together...

Starting to put some panels into place...

Slowly, slowly...

And finally a mock-up to check the leg plates all fit as they should...once the lower legs were the right way round...

This one is Legio Praesagius, but I expect to cave in and go full Legio Gryphonicus before too long...glad I got my World Eaters test scheme down though!...

Handro

So you want to build a Storm Eagle...

Short answer - don't.

Long answer...

FW resin, meet my friend Mr. Clamps...

Now this is how the Steagle sat on my shelf for nearly a year, which was long enough for the top rear panel to almost nearly not quite fit where it needed to be...Seriously, it was, and still is way out from where it ludicrously claims it ought to physically be able to exist. The fit is so bad, I eventually had to pin both sides of the fuselage to the floor, even after hours of heating and filing. Even then, the front ramp sits in a gap that is too big for it, requiring plasticard and Greenstuff to help out.

Further on....you can see that even the plastic on this kit is bent,  the front 'flap' of the cockpit housing the (absent) Multimelta is lifting away from the hull...You can also see that the resin differs in colour, depending on whether it had sat in the sun on my shelf or the darkness of the hobby cupboard for a year...

I had to remove significant amounts of the rears of the top wing parts (where the Greenstuff is in the above pic) just to get them in, the main issue being that the front plastic top panel just wouldn't sit in the right position, consequently shifting all the parts behind it out of position...The engines are pinned into the hull for strength, most of the weight is on the wings and rear of the model (which also causes 'issues' in terms of flying stand stability). Don't forget to pin the landing skids to their legs either, I didn't trust them to hold the weight of the thing alone. Magnetising is an option here.

Pretty much there!

Here she is, pretty much done and awaiting undercoat. What a labour of...well, it wasn't love, certainly. Bit of a grind, really!

Best of a bad job an' all that...

Here you can see the WIP 'Greenstuff covered in Liquid Greenstuff' phase of the project. Yeah. It looks better than this now, promise!

---

Overall, this is a great looking model (remember the brick-like abomination this kit is based on) that is dragged down by horrendous warping and bad fit. Equally it's so rear-heavy extra attention will be required to get it to go safely (and/or semi-permanently) on its flying stand. God-Emperor knows how I'll transport it either. I can't really recommend the kit itself to anyone, never mind the inexperienced modeller, just get a Spartan instead. (Der H: Funny you should mention that...) It does pretty much the same job and is more survivable (on and off the battlefield). However, if you really want, or list restrictions require you to have a flyer transport, you don't have any other option in this price range...in that case, Emperor be with you.

Handro

Another year, Another ETL...

Behold - in the nick of time - my finished ETL 2018 vow to complete 6 Scimitar Jetbikes as a Sky Hunter Squadron, with a sky Hunter Sgt with Phoenix power spear of total value 270 points! Its a shame I couldn't do a second pledge, have a lovely purple Dreadclaw that is gathering dust!

For those that dont know, over on Bolter and Chainsword there is an annual event called the ETL ("E Tenebrae Lux" - Or for us peasants, "From darkness, light"). It is popular, and as such is now in its 6th year.

Pledges are made to a particular faction on the boards, and their points cumulative to that faction's grand total, 270 points is a poor show in all honesty, but real life does get in the way.

These are my first jetbikes. I have one more being built as a legion champion for Maru Skara shenanigans....but that can wait...

I even put details on the control panel - a rare treat for me!

In the works are a Dreadclaw, 2 10 man tactical squads, 5 more phoenix terminators, a librarian (for the IIIrd you say?!) and some more HQs.....oh, and a Spartan!

[Brother Handro: "That's basically 2 years' work right there...."]

Der H

FWOD 2018 - Brief summary!

Huzzah! Anther successful open day!

The dawn chorus was once again rudely interrupted by the sound of a poorly tuned diesel, and we began the 2 hour journey to Nottingham. Arriving in the middle of what would become the eventual queue, we surged into the sales hall and realised.....we don't actually need anything new!

[Brother Handro: "To the Forgeworld store!"]

Two proteus' (Armoured and standard) and some doors for Handro, and the Last chance to buy renegade preachers [Der H: "Watch this space..."] for Der H and we returned our winnings to the car.

Several trips around the design studio hall, and the obligatory tour of the museum, later and we  had seen much!

A second [Brother Handro: "...and third"] trip round the forge world store saw Der H finally cave in and buy 5 more phoenix terminators and a Spartan with IIIrd legion doors....and a LCTB Hounds of Xaphan....don't ask!

Over the next few days we will post some summaries covering a review of the information gleamed about Titanicus - including and over the shoulder view of Tony unboxing the Grand Master Edition - and a post covering new releases and the new stuff from the studio!

For now here are our two new releases from today:

Lastly, stay tuned for tomorrow where we will review, with images, an unboxing from TC himself.

Der H & Brother Handro

Progress! ETL Progress

We actually had a hobby day! Brother Handro made some progress on his new knights, and I pushed on with my ETL vow! 

Gorgeous sunny day in Manchester so we were outside, made the paint dry faster!! 

Six jetbikes near finished! They all had Halfords grey primer, then a three stage airbrush (dark/mid/light purples and a wash) then silver.  

After that it’s gold and brass with details. 

The majority of the jetbikes use a white triangle on the front armour plate:

Whilst the Sergeant has a band instead: 

I have plans for a champion on jetbike so stay tuned!! 

 Der H & Brother Handro

April 2018 - Schroedinger's Pledge

In which we ponder whether a pledge is complete or not... 

Brother Handro 

I had high hopes for this one. A single model in a month...I could lavish care and attention on it...and yet in the end I kind of lost my way with it, and the result is functional, nothing more. Still, one more finished model for the collection! (*Tries not to think about the hundred models he's added since then*)

Der H

Yea, that didn't happen! I pledged to complete my Dreadclaw drop pod, and it is in EXACTLY the same condition as when I started....and it is also now the end of May...

Now...where is that woman with that bell...ah here she is...

Der H & Brother Handro