Clan Rats, Phoenix Lords and Tanks!

Eclectic posting list here...i'm winding down the painting binge i've been on. Ordered a resin base for Karandaras from Dragon Forge Games, might do that and get him in GD this year. Know i won't win anything, but would be nice to enter something for once!

Photo time!

First up an old clanrat I painted up in an hour for a painting competion in store. Nothing fancy, just used it as an excuse to work on layering in the muscles on the arms, and rusty metal on his back and weapon. Didn't win anything, but the standard even in store, just on rats was insane!



With Karandaras and Fuegan done I now have a completed Phoenix Court. You can easily compare my early work (Asurmen, Maugan Ra) with my newest...definently grown as a painter. (and yes i knwo Zain Jar is missing her Trisikle. Fell off and haven't got around to pinning yet)



And finally with my Fire Prisms all done I took this opportunity to get a shot of my Eldar Tank Host. 4 Fire Prisms, 3 Wave Serpents, a Falcon, a Nightspinner and a FW Firestorm, with 2 Warwalkers for support. Anyone feeling particularly opservant will notice that all Fire Prisms are diagonal stripes, Wave Serpents Vertical stripes and Falcon chassis are Chevrons. Also every tank is named, with its name in "runes" (that are actually Mandarin Chinese translations in symbols) next to the pilot.

Isle of Blood. High Elves review

Can only review half of it cos I swapped my rat folk out someone elses pointy ears, so i have double the number of elves and no skaven i'd never use. Gonna break it down

Box Set

The artwork on the box is wonderful as is the beginners booklet in there. The dice are still dice, with larger ones for scatter and artillery. Box also features whippy sticks and a set of templates. While they aren't as pretty as the rustic bronze special edition ones you can buy they are very nice. But main useful bit is the mini rule book, saving lugging the massive tome that is the 8th ed rule book around (if you want one theres a few on ebay for about £15 each...)

Models

As all the promo material shows they are gorgeous models. The sprues are packed, made swapping them out a bit of a challenge, and we missed bits when swapping them. Means I have a seaguard without a instrument, and he has a rat ogre without a head.

Griffon

Centre piece of the army this guy looks great (and based on games in store yesterday kicks serious ***). Being click together hes a bit of a paint to build (has to be done in exactly the correct order). The unpainted detail on the wings feathers particularly is wonderful and the pose is also great. Much better than the old griffon model in my opinion. Only critiscism is how ingrained the prince is to the model. His legs and hips are moulded on the halves of the torso as is the arm carrying the lance, the body slots into that, and then his head is part of the back of the seat. Although not a big deal it makes painting them seperatly or converting it to a standalone griffon or another character would be very tricky.

Mage

Again gorgeous model. Torso connects to legs connects to face, similar to the Space Marine captain in Black Reach. The base in particular is of note, its just calling out for some lighting inside it. However it is very flimsy in some places, having broken a bit of it off while pushing the model together

Reavers

10 reavers on the table looks a bit intimidating to me. Love the champion in this group. However another complaint here is the lack of customisabliity. The heads are attached the a throat piece that only fits onto one torso. There no swapping heads or differing one rider horse combo to his brother from the other set. But thats only minor. Also no option for banner or musician...

Infantry

Both the Swordmasters and the sea guard are wonderfully detailed and with there banners with raised details (and the sea guards shields) they are going to be fun to paint. Assembly on them all was very simple, with only 1 arm on the sea guard and nothing at all on the Sword masters, meant i got the entire 2 box worths (minus 2nd mage and griffon) clipped off, cleaned off and assembled inside 3 or so hours.

Picture shows Reavers at the back, with the mage in top right. The 2 squads of swordmasters are on the left (one hiding behind the griffons wings), and one super squad of seaguard (with 2 banners...) are on the right


These guys are now in the holding cycle of my painting list, waiting for a decent day to get them sprayed and started.

Picture Time!

Its show time! As promised, new camera so pictures...still working out some of the nuances so some of them are a bit out of focus on the backs of frame.

Fire Prism!



Devilfish!




FireWarriors!




And Finally my XV8 Shas'o.



Theres a few others pictures to come, but will spread them out a bit...

In Videogaming news Minervas Den DLC for Bioshock2 is out. And its awesome. Much bigger than I was expecting.

Also Dead Rising Case Zero is out. As a fan of DR I love it, so advise people to go out and get it.