Battlefield in a Box: Sewage Works Play Test: GW Fame!

Yesterday I managed to get to club for the first time this term. This gave me the opportunity to play test the Sewage Works terrain set!

Below is the set up we used, show before deployment. I was concerned that there wouldn't be enough terrain to cover a 6x4 board, but it was more than enough!

Here's a shot about 2 turns in. My Vostroyans were pitched against the vile Eldar! It was a comfortable win, 7KP to 3KP.

I think its safe to deem this project a success! The only thing it really needs is a nice Zuzzy battlemat to play on! Once my Credit Card has recovered from the recent car breakdown (£400!!!) I'll think about getting one!

On a more smug note, my Space Wolves were featured on the GW website yesterday! Thanks to Alex (From the Fang) for dropping me a line and letting me know! Click here to check them out!


(a very smug!) GunGrave

'Martyr's Square' Monument

Our Club's got an Apoc' game coming up on the 5th of February, for which I'm writing a scenario and narrative for. The battle will be centred around 'Martyrs Square' , but i quickly realised that i didn't have a suitable terrain centrepiece for it! So i threw this together on Monday!

GW building panels with plasticard tops to each tier with the gaps all sealed with Polyfilla. Very quick, very easy!

The 'water' at the base of the monument is just Bestial Brown sealed with Army Painters Quickshade Strong Tone Varnish to make it look watery. It used to be a mosaic covered pond, but after many months of neglect, has become a mucky, rain water filled puddle.

The Space Marine statue is of course from the Honoured Imperium set. Basecoated in shining gold, it was given a heavy drybrush of 1:1 Goblin Green:Ice Blue.

I've left the Statue detachable from the monument for storage purposes, and so it can eventually be part of a 'Battlefield in a Box' project later on!

I'm looking forward to seeing this on the table for the Apoc' game. Stay tuned for pictures of that in the next 2 weeks!

The GunGrave

Necron Crypyek Conversions Painted

These guys caused me more problems than you might think! I struggled to settle on a scheme that i liked! What you see here is the 3rd colour combo i tried! First a blue scheme like the GW ones, then a gold scheme and then this. The Chaos Black plates are highlighted with Dark Angles Green (you can just about see it!), Dwarf Bronze for the ribs on the back, and Emerald Green for the eyes and staffs.

Although it ended up being really basic, I'm actually really happy with it! I like the large amount of black on them, which makes them look really sinister; just like a keeper of forbidden power should be!

I gave the eyes a blast of Emerald Green with the airbrush and highlighted that with 1:1 Emerald Green : Skull White. Theres a bit of Green Wash in the recesses as well.

The Staffs were a real pain to do. I wanted to wet blend Dark Angles Green up to Emerald Green, but its like my wet blending skills have deserted me!! I tried multiple times to make it happen, but for some reason it wouldn't work! I just blasted it Emerald Green (using an airbrush) over a Dark Angles Green base. Then a small highlight on the edges. Not as good as i wanted, but it'll have to do.

I also airbrushed Emerald Green onto the orbs on the back of the Crypteks to make them glowy as well.

Overall I'm pleased! A simple conversion with a simple paint job (in the end!)

Our clubs got an Apoc' game coming up at the end of the month now, so I'm making a terrain piece for the occasion! This will interfere with painting the last of the Immortals, but I'm hoping the terrain won't take to long to make! More on that later in the week!

The GunGrave

Back to the Necrons

With the Rapiers out of the way, i thought it was high time i gave the 'Crons some love.

First up is some Cryptek conversions. I use the term 'conversions' very lightly here, as it basically involved a head swap and a bit of staff adjusting! Its an idea that's been floating around the net for a bit now: use plastic Lychguard models and stick Deathmark heads on them. Much better than running the 'CrapCast Guantlet' in my opinion! Plus you get loads of spares! Their are 2 Harbingers of Destruction with Eldrich Lances and 1 Harbinger of Transmo-whatsa-thingy with Tremorstave!

I made some minor adjustments to the Harbinger of Transmo Tremorstave guy's staff! The end is just a Warscythe with an extra Warscythe blade attached to the other side. It just had to be different from the other two. This  guys also going to be packing a 'Harp as well, but I'm still working on ideas for that. 

Some more Immortals with Gauss Blasters.....yawn.....



Out of those 10 Warriors i showed you a few weeks ago, i figured that i only needed 4 more for the army, so i was lazy and boxed the other 6!

Some more good results on the marble paint effects.

Finally, my Overlord. I decided to buy an Annihilation Barge and use the Overlord from that than bother with the ShiteCast version. At least this way a get a decent Overlord and a quality 'HS' choice as well! A simple 40m base was all that was needed for this guy with plenty of Necrony crystals as well!

Some painted pictures of these guys will be up  next week!

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Rapier Laser Destroyer Battery

The second and third Rapiers were swiftly completed over the weekend to complete the first Rapier battery! I say first because its entirely likely I'll be getting more of these awesome minis in the future! If you haven't got any, go and get some!! NOW!

You may have noticed that I've used the Cadian arms that came with the Rapiers for these two. I figured that for the sake of a shoulder pad difference, it wasn't worth the hassle fitting an actual Krieg arm. Besides, they look fine once painted!

Here's the whole Battery together! These will form the backbone of my anti-tank firepower for the Krieg Siege Regiment list.

All this Krieg action has seriously distracted me from the Necrons! With some Cryptek conversions, an Overlord, Warriors, Immortals and an Annihilation Barge sitting on the side awaiting attention, I'll have my work cut out for me over the next week! More from the Tomb World soon!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Hab Block Complete!

I present, the Hab Block!

This has only really took me 3 weeks to complete (that's not including the idle time over Xmas), so pretty swift in Apoc' Terrain terms. Ultimately I'd like to have another 1 of these, maybe 2! With a small build time like this, it seems very likely that it will happen!

After another 2 coats of primer i airbrushed some Codex Grey on random parts of the structure. I did this partly to break up all the dark grey, and partly to cover up the patches of paint that the oil paint wash melted! Yes people, it doesn't happen very often, but it does happen!

Aside from that, theres not a great deal of colour on here. The picture below shows the areas where I've added some Boltgun Metal. Just to the fans, boxes and skulls, repeated all over the structure. I also added some MIG weathering powder to those small cap things on the base of the fan tiles. They looked like they might periodically eject something from them!

This is as fancy as it got in terms of embellishments! A bit of Dwarf Bronze on the Cogs and doorway, and the rest is Boltgun Metal.

The botched corners on this building are suitably muted now its painted! Their tragic story will never be known. 

A small splash of weathering powder to the roof sections helped break up the grey a bit more.

That's that! Another Apoc' Terrain project complete! Unfortunately the Hab Block now has to go into storage until the next Apoc' game. I'll have to visit it in the garage every now and then.....! With any luck it will be joined by some new pieces soon. On the list is a pair of Defence Laser Installations (heavily modelled on the GW ones in the Apoc' book), and a long standing idea: Imperiator Bridge!

The GunGrave

Battlefield in a Box

We're quite lucky at our gaming club - we've always got tonnes of terrain to play with! I've been shocked to see the the state and quality of the terrain at some tournaments I've been to, and always counted us lucky to have quantity and quality on our side. Our biggest problem is maintenance! We struggle to look after the terrain we have, and i think that this is largely down to inadequate storage.

Some of you may remember me mentioning the 'Battlefield in a Box' project over the course of this year. The reason its taken so long for you to hear more about it is because I've been hunting for the 'perfect' storage box! This itself was featured on the blog a few months ago when i found one in B&Q for a tenner. "What the hell makes the perfect box?" i hear you cry? Well, for me it had to be of a medium size (you can make your own calculations on that one), and rectangular. Now this sounds like a very simple set of criteria to meet, but i assure you, it was not! Plastic boxes always seem to have these funny indentations in the sides of them, which makes the insides (the most important part) irregular. This box had none of these problems, and so was the perfect candidate for the project.

The purpose of the project? To make terrain fit the box, not the other way around! I think that our terrain becomes abused and damaged because we try to cram as much terrain as possible into the box, so with any luck, tailor made terrain will keep wear and tear to a minimum.

All of the terrain I made for the Sewage Works project was all made to measure for this storage box. It fits easily and safely. Theres even space to spare!

The scatter terrain is in a separate cardboard box.

Oh, here's the finished macerators from a while back! They're in there to!

My dining room table is 6 1/2 ft long and just under 4ft wide. The terrain here gives a pretty decent coverage. The only thing i will be adding is a few more pipes, but aside from that theres a great gaming table there! And all of it fits into a sturdy, easily portable box!

So what do you guys think? I know its kinda teaching people to suck eggs, but to see the idea in action really makes terrain building a much more feasable idea for me (and hopefully you guys to!) I intend to take this lot to club when it restarts again, just to test the theory.

The next Battlefield in a Box will be dedicated to the art of Trench Warfare! More on that over the next few months.

The GunGrave

Death Korps of Krieg Rapier Laser Destroyer

Santa you fat bastard, you really came through for me this year! That's right, a shiny new Rapier Laser Destroyer was under the tree for me on Xmas day, shooting up all the other presents!

As soon as i saw the minis on the Forgeworld website, i was hooked! A massive Rogue Trader throwback for sure (which i don't usually buy into) but for some reason it really called out to me. Once i read the rules for this baby, i was set on a 3 piece squadron of them for my Krieg, which really lack anti tank firepower at the moment. If your not familiar with the Laser Destroyers weapon profile.....

Range          Strength          AP          Type

  36"                   9                   1           Ordinance 1, Twin Linked

Its a Lascannon on steroids, but you compromise a bit on the range, which I'm happy to do for AP1 and Twin Linked! It also has an AV value of 11, 10, 10 - understandably flimsy, with 1 IG crewman (which changes to Kriegsman if used in a Krieg list) I can also take a squadron of these as an Elites choice for a Krieg Seige Regiment List, and at 40pts a piece, I'm all in!

Anyways, enough talk, here's the painted pictures of my first Rapier Laser.



The usual tank weathering effects were applied, with the exception of the mud on the tracks. I thought that  it would make it look a bit clumsy with all that extra bulk on it, so just went with the muddied brown tracks instead.

Here's the WIP shots. As you can see, a genuine Kriegsman was used as opposed to the Cadian crewman that comes with the set. This guy is the gunner of a Centaur Artillery Tractor! 3 sets of Centaur Crewmen were sent to me in error from an eBay seller Y-E-A-R-S ago, which i had no use for but dutifully held onto. I'm glad i did!

The spotters backpack came with the set (which is a nice touch), but the arms were a real problem though. The right arm controlling the joystick is a Krieg arm which would normally be holding onto the Heavy Stubber on the topside of a Centaur. The problem was, it was way to long. I had to shorten it dramatically to make it fit. The shoulder plating covers up most of my "trademark-sloppy" Green Stuff work fortunately!

The other arm was from the Cadian that came with the set. The second Krieg arm bent to much towards the middle of the Kriegsman (as if you were hugging a stomach wound) and to much work would be required to make it right. So i added a cuff to the arm and decided to just live with the Cadian shoulder pad. At least this way it wouldn't look shoddy from being butchered to death by my woefully inadequate Green Stuff skills! It doesn't look that bad once its painted up.

Finally here's a quick size up for you. Mrs GunGrave was appalled by how small it was! (turns out it wasn't Santa after all.....) I assured her that you couldn't put a price on the death of the Emperors enemies.....she wasn't convinced!

It felt really good to get back to the Imperial Guard after all the Xenos action that's been going on around here recently. Thought i might have to change the name of the blog! Suffice to say, I've got 2 more Rapiers on my desk waiting to be built, so expect more reinforcements for the Death Korps soon!

The GunGrave

Apocalypse Terrain: Hab Block Pt 4

Welcome to 2012. I hope you all had a good New Year and a happy 'Inconcevable Virgin Birth Celebration Day' as well!

After a good week off from the hobby, i jumped straight back into the Hab Block project. I'm pleased to say that its now 100% complete! Those corners gave me tonnes of trouble though!

Firstly i went with the Polyfilla, and after 2 layers of the stuff and 4 days of drying ( ! ) the filler took on a rubbery consistency, much like bathroom sealant. This made it useless, as i wouldn't be able to sand it flat. Then i tried Milliput to finish it off. This worked well, but i struggled to get crisp corners and smooth surfaces. ARGH! Finally i gave some thin plasticard a go. As the gap was filled already, all i needed to do was clad the filla/milliput in the card to  get a tidy finish. This worked, and after the addition of a few rivets, it didn't look to bad. At this stage i decided to cut my losses, chalk it up to experience, and go with it!

2 of the corners had gaps small enough to fill with some Cities of Death pieces.

Once it was all dry i got it undercoated so i didn't have to look at all the horrible imperfections any longer! It still needs another 2 coats of paint before its done. Then its onto the details and a swift completion!

On a side note, Mrs GunGrave and her buddy wanted to dress up as Roman Soldiers for New Years! These breast plates were made from Plaster of Paris Bandages - thought they came out quite well! Guess which lucky bugger got to apply the bandages!!

Anyways, they also needed an eagle design on the front, but  i only had an Imperial Eagle stencil. They seemed quite happy with this, so on it went! It didn't half remind me of the Sisters of Silence! Always comforting to know theres a covenant of Sexy-Deadly-Pariah chicks knocking around!

The GunGrave