SELLING AND PAINTING: Feeling Grotty

I've had a good root through my 40k Ork collection and made some final decisions on what to do with my remaining models. I will keep all of my 1st edition Rogue Trader models, Thrugg's Bullneck Raiders, for nostalgia. One day I will paint them up with matching RTB01 Space Marines just for fun.

I have decided that virtually all of my 2nd edition/early 3rd edition models must go. That includes my Goff slugga boyz, a unit of shoota boyz and some converted tankbustas. They are on eBay now.

The only models I'm going to keep from this period are a handful of metal Orks which need to be stripped, and my Grots. I have seventy or eighty of the little buggers kicking around in various states of completion. They are far from the best models in the world, and I would never use them in my normal 40k army, but they would be great in Apocalypse games where I could field a horde of models. This is where my plan gets so cunning you could stick some pointy ears on it and call it a Grot.

I know I am well behind on my painting points total for the year, but what if I got my Grots up to tabletop standard before the turn of the year? The dinky models wouldn't take long at all to finish - heavy washes all round - and they would contribute massively towards my target.

But first, I need to concentrate on my Imperial Navy Aeronautica Imperialis squadron.

BACKGROUND: Ork Air Waaagh - Kolath Gutbad's Ironkrates

Now that I've finally gotten my Aeronautica Imperialis Ork Air Waaagh painted I thought it was about time to come up with some background stories for my squadron.

Ork Air Waaagh - Kolath Gutbad's Ironkrates

• Fighta 'Jawz of Doom' pilot Skargrod Nobskab
• Fighta 'Da Ridgeback' pilot Shakskab Naffrunt
• Fighta 'Flaming Deff' pilot Wazgul Ugrot
• Fighta 'Go Fasta' pilot Kolath Gutbad
  
• Fighta 'Wingtoof' pilot Snagazod Gobuz
• Fighta-bommer 'Jagged Deff' pilot Badurty Skarthug
• Fighta-bommer 'Killa Krate' pilot Duffrunt Duffsnik
• Fighta-bommer 'Flames of Waaagh' pilot Oggrod Urtygrub
• Fighta-bommer 'Widda Maker' pilot Grimsnaga Waaarg
• Bommer 'Big Burd' pilot Urtyuz Naffshak

The Skolarii Sector
Ork activity has increased right across the Skolarii sector at the end of the 41st millennium. This is largely due to the presence of one very influential Ork; Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka. Following the second war for Armageddon, the first Ork invasion, Ghazghkull travelled the galaxy replenishing his forces and rebuilding his strength. The Skolarii Sector was one of his destinations. He has stirred up Ork aggression on a dozen worlds but he did not offer just inspiration. Ghazghkull also brought with him a cadre of Mekboyz, Ork engineers.

These Meks, along with Ghazghkull's fiery oratory, spurred on the scattered Orks of the Skolarii Sector. They were more ambitious in their attacks against the Imperium and other factions, using new vehicles and space ships to co-ordinate their forces.

The rise of Kolath Gutbad
Kolath Gutbad was a lowly Trukk driver in an Evil Sunz warband led by Badskab Gobsnik. Kolath loved nothing more than to drive his Trukk at top speed, firing at his enemies in a hail of poorly aimed shots. His tactics were non existent, in fact he rarely gave a thought to the Boyz clinging on for dear life in the back of his Trukk, but he knew how to squeeze every last ounce of speed out of his vehicle and boy did he know how to drive!

Kolath Gutbad's name would probably have never been heard of by the Imperium had fate not intervened. Badskab, the Evil Sunz warband leader pledged his allegiance to Snagra Bullteef, a mighty Bad Moon warboss. Snagra was an ambitious Ork and had led a massive Waaagh from the sleepy backwater world of Moresp to the Hiveworld of Finschan in the Kandaeon Worlds many years before. Together with a cadre of mysterious off-world Orks Snagra was gathering forces to mount an attack on Garrison 41, a bastion that had consistently repelled wave after wave of Ork assaults in the past.

Garrison 41
Eager to throw his Trukk about on the ash-dunes outside Garrison 41 and riddle it's defenders with bullets, Kolath drove his Trukk out of the back of it's landing craft before it had even touched down. The last thing that went through the mind of Badskab Gobsnik was the exhaust pipe of Kolath's Trukk. He was standing right underneath the Trukk as it slammed to the ground.

Undeterred Kolath drove hell for leather into the teeth of the Imperial Guard forces at Garrison 41. The rest of the bewildered Evil Sunz piled in after Kolath and by the time Snagra Bullteef arrived in battle the Imperial Guardsmen had been overrun. Kolath received the acknowledgement of Snagra as a brave, ruthless warrior and assumed leadership of the Evil Sun warband.

Kolath called his warband the Ironkarts and won great acclaim from Snagra, fighting at the forefront of numerous engagements. His only command was 'go fasta' heard on the wind as he raced out ahead of his warband. The Ironkarts took heavy casualties as Kolath threw them into the opposition regardless of numbers, reinforcements or any other tactics or strategy. Eventually his warband had lost more than nine tenths of it's starting strength and looked like it might be wiped from existence.

A fortuitous meeting
Kolath then had his second stroke of luck. An Ork Mek called Morfug Waalug was thrown out of his warband when a Deff Dread he had helped to build ran amok killing several important Nobz. Kolath almost ran him over in the ash-dunes of Finschan while scavenging for parts for his vehicles.

Morfug had discovered a vast horde of archeotech buried beneath the ash. Kolath offered him a place in the Ironkrates warband if Morfug agreed to repair his vehicles. Morfug had a better idea. Why not use the archeotech to build some really fast and shooty vehicles - planes!

So the Ironkrates were born. Kolath renamed the warband and found many willing volunteers amongst his surviving warband to pilot his new fightas, fighta-bommers and even his big bommer. Kolath himself has never been happier and spends every minute he can in the air above Finschan, flying his fighta Go Fasta, dogfighting with Imperial Navy Thunderbolts and shooting up the planet's hive cities.

PAINTING: Ork Air Waaagh finished

I finished painting my Ork bommer last night. Like my previous models I slathered it in a heavy Badab Black wash and let it dry overnight. This morning I took some photos of it, along with a photo of my whole Air Waaagh.

The bommer didn't take long to paint, despite it's size compared to the fightas and fighta-bommers. I had already undercoated it black and then drybrushed it Boltgun Metal.

My first job was to paint Mechrite Red over virtually the whole model. Once that had dried I painted Blood Red over the individual armour plates. It was at this point I could have spent a lot of time highlighting each plate and maybe painting some in different colours but I just painted each plate red, leaving the darker red in the gaps.

The next small step was to block in the cockpit glass with Knarloc Green. There was so much glass I used some Dheneb Stone to highlight the upper edges.

I also used Knarloc Green to paint the Ork dropping bombs out the back.

I picked out the details in Dheneb Stone. The checks on the wings are sculpted detail so they were easy to paint. The teef on the nose are also modelled on. I pondered painting on some further markings but decided against it. I figured the model was distinctive enough as it was.

The engines were such a stand out feature I thought they needed an extra bit of attention. I washed the back end of them with Devlan Mud. When that had dried I applied the Badab Black wash over the whole model.

Here is the whole Ork Air Waaagh finished.

I'm fairly pleased with my efforts. It's a classic case of balancing the look of the models against the time it takes to paint them. I could have done a better job but it would have taken far longer, and time is something that is at a premium at the moment.

So, onto the Imperial Navy planes next.

PAINTING: Two more planes roll out of the hangar

With two hours spare on Wednesday night I knuckled down and painted some more Ork planes.

I finished two fighta-bommers. One is armed with Grot bombs, so I also painted up both of my flying Grot bombs.


I used the same techniques on these planes as described in my earlier posts. The first fighta-bommer I decided to go for a big and bold flame effect on the wings and tail. As a result I decided to name this plane Flames of Waaagh.

I was running out of variations of checks, dags and flames by now so I painted solid markings on the wingtips and spine of my last fighta-bommer. The checks on the wings of the Grot bombs are molded on and the model is so tiny there was no space for anything else.

So I have now painted everything in my Ork Air Waaagh except the big Bommer. This will take a good couple of hours on it's own, if not longer, due to the size of the model. I expect to get this done today as I have a day off work.

If I'm feeling really inspired I might push on and start some more Imperial Navy models.

NEW MODEL FUND: Target acquired!

Just over a week ago I listed some of my unwanted models on eBay. The auctions included the Imperial Guard special character Captain Al'rahem, a Tanith Command squad including Corbec, Dorden, Milo, Larkin, and a plasma gunner, a limited edition Inquisitor Gideon Lorr model and a fully painted Goblin Blood Bowl Team including Ripper Bolgrot and three secret weapons.

I hoped these models would pull in about £50. In the event I almost doubled that and received £94.90. Since I won't be buying any more models this year, that means I have now exceeded my revised target of £750 in the New Model Fund by the end of the year!

Flushed with success I decided to immediately list some more models on eBay. I blogged about those auctions on Monday and when they finish on Sunday they will also contribute to my fund this year. I'll then have decided whether I can be bothered to list even more models before Christmas.

I can't wait until 2010 when I'll start spending all this cash!

SELLING: Greenskins

Hot on the heels of my previous auctions, I have another batch of models up for sale.

Most of the new models are 40k Orks. As I go through my collection of Ork models I am deciding which ones to keep and which ones to sell. Although there are a lot to build and paint there are also a lot I want to sell, mostly the older models.

First up though, is the current Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka model fully painted. It might seem strange that I'm selling this given that I'm about to start an Ork army but I fear his existing colour scheme won't fit into my new scheme. I also have a second unpainted version which I'm going to keep.

The rest of the Ork models are old school models from the Gorkamorka period. There is a Trukk, painted to a tabletop standard.


A Wartrakk with twin-linked big shoota.


And everyone's favourite: Warbikers.

Last, but definitely not least, we have a couple of lovely Goblin cheerleaders.

I'm hoping my two batches of eBay sales will take me to that magic £750 target.

PAINTING: Red ones go fasta!

Another day, another plane painted.

I'm really getting into my stride with my Ork Air Waaagh now. This plane, which I have christened Jagged Deff, only took an hour to paint.

That's all of the fightas finished now, so I have two fighta-bommers, a bommer and two grot bombs left to paint. If I keep up at this pace I should be finished my Ork squadron by the weekend.

PAINTING: AI Ork reinforcements

I had a couple of spare hours last night and although I really couldn't be bothered I forced myself to my painting desk to work on my Aeronautica Imperialis models. Given my mood I decided it would be best to paint my Ork planes - if I made a mess of them I could get away with it more easily!

Just like exercising, I found I enjoyed myself once I got started. Just two hours later I had two finished planes. Result!

I painted up one fighta and one fighta-bommer. I hoped that painting two different models would stave off boredom and keep me at the painting station.

I decided to take some close-ups of the models. I'm not sure I'm doing myself any favours by showing them at this level of detail!

You can see in both photographs above another problem I've had with my Ork models in particular. The big shootas in the wings are so fragile that many of them have snapped off. I considered replacing them with some brass rod but the wings are so thin I'm not sure I'll be able to drill a hole to stick it in. I think I'll wait until I've painted all the planes before I make my decision.

OPINION: Ideas to shake up your 40k games

Back in 2008 I was feeling a bit jaded with 40k and gaming in general. Gary, my regular opponent, and I had gotten into the routine of playing 1500 point games with missions straight from the rulebook week after week. In order to try and spice things up a bit I came up with a few ideas for unusual games.

As it happens we never did actually play any of these games but that shouldn't stop you from trying them out. Perfectly balanced tournament scenarios aren't the only way to play the game!

Tank battle
For a long time I preferred to paint and model infantry rather than vehicles but I then went through a phase of mechanising my armies, adding tanks and transports to them all. Gary was always more pragmatic and included vehicles in many of his armies. Between us we had about ten different factions with three to four vehicles each. So I got to thinking - wouldn't it be great if I could use all of those vehicles, across all the different factions, in one big game?

My plan was to put together the biggest table we could find, maybe even use the floor, and fight a gigantic tank battle. We would split the armies into the forces of order and disorder and then have at it. Points values be damned!

Any vehicles, including Dreadnoughts and walkers, could be used and no other models. We would play until one side had no mobile vehicles.

Seven Samurai
I think there is a scenario similar to this in the 6th edition Warhammer Fantasy battle rulebook. One person picks his 1500 point army as normal, without using too many vehicles, special characters or too many funky rules. The other person must spend his entire 1500 points on up to seven HQ choices. The 'normal' army has to wipe out the seven samurai by the end of the game otherwise they lose.

This game would probably be very quick to play, so you play two games in one night, with each player coming up with their own version of the seven samurai.

Arena of Death
Gary and I have large model collections including numerous special characters, greater daemons and sundry HQ choices. My idea was to gather them all together and plonk them on the table together. Each player rolls a die with the winner picking a character to activate. They get a full turn to move, shoot and assault with that character and then the other player chooses a different model. The players alternate characters until every model has had a turn and then the players dice off again.

The last model standing is the winner. That should help answer those annoying questions such as 'who is harder, Abaddon or Ghazghkull?' At least for a while.

40k League
My last idea was based on our Blood Bowl leagues. We would write up 500 point fixed lists for each of our armies - probably around 10 or so factions. These would be kept the same for the duration of the league. Each army would play every one of the others once. That would mean playing a lot of games! Now you understand why the armies are kept at just 500 points. Small games means you could play four games a night if you wanted to.

Each army would get 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss. Whichever army had the most points at the end of the league is the winner.

Anyway, that's all for now. This already feels like one of those rambling Standard Bearer articles by Jervis Johnson so I'll shut up.

GENERAL: Just sayin'

A few days ago I posted up my first Aeronautica Imperialis battle report.

What I really wanted to do was familiarise myself with the game rules, but rather than dryly run through them I decided to actually play through a game. I came up with some basic solo rules with half of my painted forces; two Thunderbolts versus three Fightas.

Check it out on my battle reports blog here.

SELLING: eBay model auctions

On Sunday I listed some more models on eBay. This is part of my final push to hit that magic £750 total for the New Model Fund by Christmas.

You can check out the auctions here.

I'm selling the Imperial Guard special character Captain Al'rahem, a Tanith Command squad including Corbec, Dorden, Milo, Larkin, and a plasma gunner, a limited edition Inquisitor Gideon Lorr model and a fully painted Goblin Blood Bowl Team including Ripper Bolgrot and three secret weapons.

I'm hoping to pull in something like £50 from these auctions, which would leave me about £35 short of my target. That would mean one more set of sales before Christmas and I'd be done.

Here's hoping.

PAINTING: Blood Bowl Morg 'N Thorg

While I was hunting through my model collection looking for stuff to put up on eBay I came across my old Morg 'N Thorg model. He was painted up years ago in very basic fashion - everything in one flat layer - to get him onto the field as quickly as possible.

I thought it might be fun to highlight those original colours and slap some washes on him to bring him up to scratch. It's been ages since I painted a model just for the hell of it so I thought why not? He'll contribute two more points to my painting pledge total if nothing else.


I first painted this model was so long ago that the skin was apparently Bronzed Flesh; at least that was the closest match I could find now. I highlighted all of the skin and the boots, touched up the metallics and highlighted the white stripes on the 'skirt.' After that I used the new washes extensively. I used Ogryn Flesh on the, er, flesh, Badab Black on the metallics, and Devlan Mud on the leather.

Just looking at the photographs now I can see some areas where the wash is a bit too heavy but hey, what do you want for an hours work?

Morg is painted in the colours of my Human Blood Bowl team, the Wolfenburg Shadows. Wolfenburg is in the North East of the Old World and is part of Ostland. Ostland's colours are black and white, just like my football team Newcastle United, which is in the North East of England. See what I did there?

So, after that brief diversion, back to my Aeronautica Imperialis planes...

PAINTING: Thunderbolts ready for action

After some umming and ahhing I've decided to call my AI planes done and move on to painting the rest.

I've been in this position before with other models and usually I push on, adding more paint then wishing I hadn't. Why add more when I'm happy with the way they are?

As you can see in the photograph I have added some identification markings to the tail fins. They come from an old Imperial Guard decal sheet I had, dating back to 1994. I'm not totally familiar with how Imperial Navy wings are organised but for my purposes the Thunderbolts are led by plane C and then are numbered 1, 2, 3, etc.

I will use more decals later, once the planes have seen some action.

So, I have now added the nine points to my painting point total for the year, bringing it up to seventy points. I have two Fightas, three Fighta-bommers, a Bommer, two Grot bombs two Lightnings, and two Marauder bombers left to paint. I'm going to count the Bomber and Marauders as two models each because of their size so the remaining models will add fourteen points to my total. That will bring me up to eighty four points for the year.

Will I get the other sixteen points painted to take me up to the magic hundred I'm aiming for? It looks unlikely at the moment, but watch this space.

PAINTING: Take two squadrons into the air? I just wash and go!

I did this painting a few days ago but I have only just got round to photographing the results.

I washed the metallic parts of the Thunderbolts with Badab Black and then slapped some Devlan Mud on the red tails and darker camo stripes.

I'm dithering over the highlight stage now. My normal process after the basecoats and washes would be a highlight layer but I actually quite like the muted, matte finish on the planes at the moment. I'm considering just adding some identification markings and calling them done.

I also washed my Ork planes heavily with Badab Black. This went over the whole model, red and metallics. Again, I think it's given the models a more subdued, gritty look which I'm digging, but I feel guilty for not completing the process.

When do you know how to stop painting a model anyway?

Comments and criticism are welcome!

GENERAL: New Year resolutions update third quarter

It's a whole ten months since I made my 2009 New Year resolutions, so I thought I'd revisit them for the last time this year and see where I'm at.

Finish 2000 points of Blood Angels Space Marines
Done!

Paint 1000 points of my Ork army
I have built all the models but haven't painted a single one. It now looks extremely unlikely that I'll even start painting the Orks this year.

Paint a total of 100 points of models over the year (the formula is in this blog entry)
I've now fallen behind schedule with this as I'm on 61 points. If I paint all of my Aeronautica Imperialis planes in the coming weeks that will add 19 points and leave me on 80 points. In theory some Orks would push me on to the magic 100 points but I'm not sure I'll achieve this.

Completely finish publishing my old battle reports
Done!

Finish my Blood Bowl league
Still on hold, it's looking unlikely I'll get around to this.

Finish my trench board and accompanying terrain
This has been delayed while I built my 40k Ork army and started painting my AI squadrons, but I still have high hopes of finishing by the end of the year.

Restart my News and Rumour posts
I've not kept up with this in the last few weeks, largely because I've been busy with other things and I've not been keeping up with the news and rumours. Also, Games Workshop have really clamped down on leaks so there just don't seem to be the rumours out there to report back on.

Switch domains
I had forgotten about this. I'm still skint so the incentive is there for me to do this.

Buy no more Games Workshop novels
I still haven't bought any novels but I've won a total of three across the year in competitions! My reading pile has reduced, though, so I'll keep to this resolution for the time being.

Review every Games Workshop book I read and review a broader range of Games Workshop products
This isn't going to happen in 2009. My reviews will have to wait until 2010.

Spend nothing at all on models
I buckled on this resolution when I bought some models for my Ork army. I have a lot of money in my New Model Fund, though, so I'm not too upset with myself. I think I'll loosen the purse strings a bit next year and start spending some of that cash.

Have £500 in the New Model Fund by the end of year
I've done so well in this regard that I've increased my target to £750. It will mean another blitz of stuff on eBay in the coming weeks but I've already got a selection of models ready to go and I'm confident that they'll pull in that last £80 or so.

I'm happy that I've already achieved some of my big resolutions, such as finishing my Blood Angels and converting my battle reports, and that I've largely kept to my spending resolutions.

There are some that I'm just not going to be able to keep though, such as painting my Orks. This isn't due to laziness on my part - the thing I've learned is that my goals will change over the year depending on my mood, Games Workshop releasing new games and models and even how busy I am at work.

It helps to have targets to push you on but you don't want so many targets that it puts you off even starting. I think I've felt a bit overwhelmed at times in the last few months so it's something to bear in mind when it comes to making more resolutions in 2010.

Anyway, I'll be back in late December or early January with the final recap of my resolutions.

PS - It's Remembrance Sunday today so I observed my two minute silence at 11.00am. I know that the idea is you remember those who gave their lives in the first world war, but I personally gave a thought to all of the pilots who gave their lives in the second world war.

PAINTING: Dogfight!

I had a day off work today so I knuckled down and got some significant painting done on my Aeronautica Imperialis models.

This is bad news for my Warseer Tale of 40k painting pledge. I promised to paint 1500 points of Orks in a year but I skipped the first two months while I put the army together. If I miss another month I'll be thrown off the tale. The deadline is in two days time, so today I should have done the minimum I could get away with and slapped some paint on a Deff Dread.

Instead I painted my AI models. This is taking longer than I expected because the models are quite detailed and I want to do a decent job on them. When I finish both my Navy and Ork squadrons I will still have my Planetstrike terrain to start.

My current plan is now to drop the Warseer pledge but still paint the Orks, albeit after my other projects, probably after Christmas. That gives me about eight weeks to paint my AI squadrons, and build and paint my Planetstrike terrain.

Anyway, onto the aircraft!

I began with my Thunderbolts, adding some Calthan Brown camo stripes over the basecoat. I mixed in some Bleached Bone for the second coat. I also painted the tails Mechrite Red, then added Blood Red on the top.

After I took this photo I washed both the camo and tails with Devlan Brown wash. I also washed the metallic bits with Badab Black.

While the Thunderbolts dried I moved onto my Orks. I drybrushed the lot with Boltgun Metal and then went over the top with Mechrite Red, followed by Blood Red. You can see the basecoats in the photo below.

And the photo below this is with the Blood Red coat.

Once I'd painted all of the planes red I moved on to the markings. I used dags, checks and flames in different locations on each plane to individualise them. I used thinned down Dheneb Stone which gave good coverage over the red.

The checks were the hardest to do but because the pattern is on an Ork plane I figured I could leave it a little rough.

I painted the cockpits Gretchin Green. It had to be green really, given that they're Orks.

Since taking that photo I've washed all of the planes liberally with Badab Black wash.

So that pretty much completes my first two batches of aircraft and once the wash is dry I can start to actually play out some dogfights.

ARMY BUILDING: AI initial squadron lists

I started painting my four Imperial Navy Thunderbolts first as I imagined them to be the core planes of my Navy wing. I had originally planned to paint my whole IN wing together but then I realised it would be better to paint up a handful of Ork planes next, and then when they were done I could try the models out in some small games while I got the rest of the planes finished.

So I drew up some basic squadron lists from Tactica Imperialis for my IN and Ork air Waaagh.

Imperial Navy
Thunderbolt, additional weapons load
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt
84 points

Ork air Waaagh
Fighta, additional weapons load
Fighta, additional weapons load
Fighta
Fighta
Fighta-Bommer, additional weapons load
82 points

The Ork aircraft are cheaper than the Imperial aircraft so have five planes to four, have more additional weapon loads and come in two points cheaper overall.

I have no idea how effective any of the wings will be until I get them on the tabletop.

Righto, back to the painting...

PAINTING: Thunderbolt assembly line

I spent a couple of hours painting my AI Navy squadron last night.

As soon as I began I realised that this was going to be a big job, not the twenty hour blast I had previously assumed. The problem is that the kits are heavily detailed despite their small size and I couldn't bring myself to just slap the paint on and call them done. I want to do the best paint job on these models as I can.

I started with the four Thunderbolts. I am painting them in a desert theme to match the desert terrain I will probably play most of my games on. I thinned down some Iyanden Darksun foundation paint to use as the initial base layer, going on over the black undercoat. Next I mixed in some Bleached Bone and went over the planes again, this time concentrating on the raised areas. The Thunderbolt front left is at this stage while the others are one stage behind.

Once I'd added the Bleached Bone/Iyanden Darksun mix to all the Thunderbolts I washed them all with good old Devlan Wash. It did exactly what I wanted it to do, turning the parchment yellow basecoat into a deeper, warmer yellow-brown. It has also picked out all of the lines between the plating.

I had originally thought I'd go back over the planes again to tidy up the edges but I'm loathe to start mucking about with wash as I really like the finish it has given. I might start working on the other colours first while I'm pondering my options.

SPACE HULK: Space Hulk unboxed

It's a wet and windy day up here in North East England, so much so that a ridge tile blew off the roof and hit the windscreen of my car earlier. Once I'd moved the car - the windscreen was miraculously unmarked - and took a look at the weather I decided I'd spend the rest of the day indoors, earning brownie points with my girlfriend by not hiding out in my games room painting my AI models (I plan to paint them on Tuesday night and possibly take a day off work next week). We curled up on the sofa and watch some telly but it wasn't long before I felt the urge to scratch my gaming itch. But what to do?

I sneaked off to my games room and brought Space Hulk back into the living room. For an hour or two while I watched Life and In Treatment I clipped the models from their sprues and popped the card components out.

The game is every bit as impressive as I've heard. The card corridors and rooms are the thickest I've ever seen in a board game and the graphics are superb and very atmospheric. The models are excellent, dripping with detail. I'd heard a few complaints that some of the Genestealer models were fragile and broke easily when removed from their sprue so I was extra careful. They all came free in one piece.

I timed my egg timer to check how close it was to three minutes. It came out at 2:47 which puts a bit more pressure on the Marines!

I plan to paint all of the models for Space Hulk at some point in the future - the Terminators slotting into my Blood Angels army and the Tyranids into a Cities of Death themed 40k force. I'll have to check out other blogs and forum message boards to see if anyone has successfully managed to incorporate the non standard bases onto 40k sized ones.

So I'll pack Space Hulk away for now and watch a bit more telly, perhaps leafing through a copy of the latest White Dwarf magazine.

Lazy Sunday afternoon indeed...