Selling my Childhood...

Well not really, but I am moving on the 23rd, yeah two days before Christmas. Seeing that I am not going to have room for all the stuff that has been in boxes since I moved in my last year of high school, nor need it for inspiration as I can digi-cam it I am going to auction a bunch of it off.

This serves a couple of purposes.

First I get some room in my apartment so I can actually live without tripping on boxes and have room to work, plus I get a little bit of cash for my bills.

Second I don't need it anymore, there comes a time in life where you have to let go of things. I would be lying if I said I wasn't attached to some of this stuff, as it represents my childhood and what defined my interests growing up.

Third I want it to go to good homes rather than the bin, so I will be keeping the prices fairly low on everything but those items I know are rare/expensive and, even with that in mind, they will likely be sold at genuine 1991 prices cause I need to get rid of them.

For a bit of an idea of what there is:

Collectors and those with kids keep your eyes on this space as things like actions figures from "Ninja Turtles" (Generation One), "Star Wars", "Dino Riders", "GI Joe" and any remaining G1 Transformers stuff I can find will be up for grabs. Additionally there will be some Military models, the BMW bike model that won me an art prize as a kid and alot more rare collectable goodness. Plus it is likely I will sell the old wire sculptures and things I won art prizes with as a kid too.

I will also over Christmas finish the second and third parts of the Dark Eldar posts I have been working on. So stay tuned.

cheers

Subby

To Dark Eldar or Not to Dark Eldar: Part One, Conception

So the new Dark Eldar Models are nice, but I alrady have half an Eldar Army Sitting the the cupboard unassembled that really deserve some attention. But I wanted to paint a few Hellions and some of the plastic Witches will be converted into smick Dark Elf Witches for my fanatasy army. It goes without saying that I already bought the new Lilith miniature, as it is the first GW miniature that has made my list of must have figures in nearly ten years.

Those who know me know I buy a lot of GW miniatures will be crying "Subby, how did it make your must have list, and what is your must have list anyways?"

Truth is I enjoy painting and modelling more than gaming. And occasionally I will see a model that I must own, not to game with, but to paint up to a really high standard for the display case.

Very few Games Workshop miniatures make the cut. Not because they aren't good miniatures, but it is not often these days I see one of their miniatures and go "Wow, that is beautifully executed and will be a challenge to paint well."

Similarly when I saw the new Hellions I immediately like the kit, for the execution of the design of the plastics. So I resolved to get some eventually. Looking closely at the sprues when they landed at my FLGS I could see they were well detailed and would assemble remarkably well/easy. But in the back of my mind I knew I had some Eldar miniatures, bought cheap at auction and hidden away on my to-do list.

The thing is I really am not that enthused with the colours presented by Craftworld Eldar, having first come in contact with Eldar in the heady days of Rogue Trader. Time for the waaaay-back machine....

Image shamelessly borrowed from GW, courtesy of Collegia Titanica

The lurid colours and mercenary nature of the Old Eldar was appealing but at the time Marines were firmly in my grasp and at a young age where pocket money and moving lawns was the fuel behind my income I could only afford one army. So Eldar never happened.

Now I have some minis laying around I was thinking the other day about painting a few Eldar, or maybe the starting on Lilith to take a break from all the Tiny German tanks I have been cleaning and doing test painting on (FoW has landed at the club so I dug out my 10mm stuff for paint scheme testing). On top of that I was sick all week with little else to do so with my mind wandering I came upon this post by Dave T over at FTW. In the comments there was discussion over adapting it to different colour schemes. I was thinking of doing a couple of test miniatures in various colours when a little light appeared over my head and it was on like Konkey Kong!

See I have some Harlequins from the same auction where I obtained the Eldar, and I thought back to the RT days where whole Eldar armies were given lurid colour patterns. The idea that was spawned is as follows.

What if a Harlequin troupe turned their backs upon tradition, collected a motley assortment of like minded Eldar (both Normal and Dark), and turned to raiding as they started a descent towards chaos.

I didn't know if it was original or not, but it was cohesive enough that I wouldn't get blank looks of mental failure when/if I ever took them to a tournament. I aimed for a 1750pts list, randomly selected to my taste, because winning games is not the foremost worry in my hobby life but rather painting cool stuff. The list remains unwritten however but at the moment I have yet to dig out the minis and write up what I have.

In the end I could take my time and paint lots of different colours across the army, with the bases linking them all together. Additionally if I used counts as units of Eldar minis with suitable small conversions then more than half my army is already in my hands. While largely long term the project should be fun, and will give me something to break up the monotony of the other painting projects on the bench (notably 38 Grey Space Wolves, the Remaining 10 Novamarines, 30 10mm Scale German tanks with about 150 infantry, and my 300+ Skitarii in all their black and red finery, not counting all the other stuff hiding in the cupboard).

I did want to fill out the army with some suitable Dark Eldar miniatures and thought the best place to start would be some of the new Hellions. This was for several reasons. First they are really nice miniatures. Second the sky-boards would provide a large enough canvass to test out a few of the patterns and freehand stuff I wanted to do. Third regardless of if I used the Eldar of Dark Eldar Codex they would have a use as it is not a serious stretch of the imagination that they could substitute for Swooping Hawks.

So to this end I rang my favourite local place to buy hobby stuff Ace Comics and Games at Annerly to find out if they had some on shelf (a solid yes), and thus added them to my list of destinations while doing the road-trip Saturday to various places that need visiting for work and hobby. I started the assembly/painting of them last night while waiting for some work stuff to arrive via the interwebs.

Coming soon

Part Two: Painting Tutorial => Hellion Sky-boards

Aka: Alternate Colours and Easy Dark Eldar highlighting methods.

Auctions Ahoy!

Heyo!

Well I am selling some stuff on Ebay, some new, some older and a few items that are OOP.

check out my stuff over at this here link.

I have posted this while still adding stuff so if you check back again in a couple of hours there should be even more stuff up.

Been cleaning up in preparation for my big move, so there may be other stuff still to come later in the week too.

I have been rounding up the last of the Novamarines, just one squad to go before the whole army is done. So hope fully I will have a chance to snap some good photos over the course of the week.

Also the rumours are true. I will being going away for work for an indeterminate period after the end of this month soooo posts may be few and far between.

Shoutouts and Stuff

Just a Quick one folks.

I have been busy getting things organised with the Titan Project, as well as organising stuff for my impending moving of house. So not alot has been going on with the blog. Additionally I have been taking photos and editing like crazy to get my core website updated.

One thing of note though:

I am now a member of the team over at Bloke Den. It is a games review site that covers Computer games both New and Retro.

If you want to take a gander then point your clicky fingers here.

Secondly I want to thank a couple of new followers, so shout outs go to:

The Antipope over at 122nd Cadian

Papa JJ over at diceRolla

and lastly Chris, who has a profile but no blog listed...

Lastly I wanted to give a huge shoutout to Lantz over at The Magnet Pro, thumbs up for the Ad-mech Fandex work. I want it for my Skitarii army...

Warlord Titan Project Update

This is the toe of a Titan...

That I refused to make multiples of by scratch building.

A while back I asked the question of what to cast the multiples from and settled, after a bit of discourse, on resin. So now Macca and I have a lot of toes for our two Titans, some half completed feet and the masters for the pistons (no pictured below). All the Designs are done and the major construction is under way. I managed to snavel bits out of lots of people so details shouldn't be and issue. I do have to cast another 60-ish missile tips for the multi-launcher and another 180 pistons.

more pics now...

Six toes for one foot.

Twenty-Four toes for both titans

The internal support structure in the feet.

Just how big the feet really are, yes that is a chair...

The Piston Moulds need re-engineering as I am having issues with the pours so that will happen first thing tomorrow... unless it is raining again in which case I will be washing my car.

Ten Years on...

I have been working on items of the Titan project all day, namely things that need to be moulded and cast as there are multiples. These include the hydraulics rams, toes and toe joints. I will likely also cast a copy of the crew once I finish the sculpts of the moderatii and consoles.

However there comes a point where after nearly 12 hours of measuring, cutting, sanding, glueing and checking plastic card/rod/tube where you need a break...

So I decided that I needed a little taste of the retro...

Casting my eye across the DVD Shelf I realized that a movie was not in order, so I then cast my eye across the CD shelf and something caught my eye. As you probably guessed from the snazzy picture at the start of this post that something was in fact Homeworld. Furthermore, I realised that it is in fact ten years this month that Homeworld was released.

For those of you unfamiliar with the gem of RTS history then check this handy link [SPOILER WARNING!!]

What made this game great? Well there was a rich compelling story that combined with a brilliant 3D engine, for its time, innovative approach to RTS gameplay (omnidirectional movement in space combat), a well chosen musical score and well scripted cutscenes rounded out a game that to this day is enjoyable.

For those who have never played it I recommend you try it out, for those that have played it maybe it is time to dust off an old fave...

Oh btw it will run without patches on a XP SP3 machine, but you will need a soundcard (as it repeatedly glitches when attempting to use built in sound from the mo-bo).

Photos coming soon on the progress made for the ever looming Apoc tourney... And on top of that some damn fool got himself seduced into entering Golden Demon...... so watch this space.

just a little peak at the base.

Quick Commissions

Sometimes you need a little something to break the tedium of painting and sculpting, something you have not done in a while.
For me it came this last week in the form of a quick little commission from a gamer at the FLGS.
More particularly they wanted me to colour match some minis to an already painted army that he did not paint himself.

OK so it took a little experimentation but in the end I nailed it. Happy client, more minis on the way from him (actually about another 8 to be precise).

here are a few quick snaps of the first cab off the ranks. His Defiler for his Chaos renegades force. I do apologize for the photo quality, these were hastily snapped at the FLGS before the client headed home with it. If you want a closer look the larger sized pics can be found in my Deviant Art Account Galleries, as I try to keep file sizes and load time down for my fellow bloggers.

The Front

The Back

Left Side

Right Side

From the top down

So this lifted my spirits a bit, sometimes you just need a break from one thing for a while to another.

Best Idea Ever!!!

Got Sprue?!?

Just a little something quick I wanted to share.

I was surfing the Wargames Factory website and noticed something down at the bottom of their pages in the links section.

Notably their Old Soldiers Recycling Program...

Ok so if like me you are intrigued I suggest taking a look. Finally someone has taken the initiative to recycle all those leftover sprue that we all have. On top of that you can get free stuff every month!!

I don't know about you but helping the environment seems like a good idea, but to get a chance to get free stuff out of it is better than any carbon trading fiasco I have ever heard of.

Kudos to the Wargames Factory guys for taking the initiative.

As an addendum; anyone who has white-metal off-cuts, or chunks of vents, I would be glad to take them off your hands for recycling.

and how did those conversions I mentioned in my last post turn out?

well one snap of a painted dude is right here (although it was rushed so terrible focus quality).

Yeah I know this is just a kitbash of a Valk door gunner body with a set of command squad box arms and a head from the Shock Troopers, but I have discovered that Cadian arms go straight onto a Shock Trooper body with very little fuss.

Product Review: Wargames Factory Shock Troopers

Picture courtesy of Wargames Factory

So my order of the new Wargames Factory Shock Troopers plastic boxsets arrived the other day and I thought I would do a review of them.

For more information on the set, prices and updates on related products visit the makers' website

Big D over at Hogs of War did a neat pre-release promo post back in April that really piqued my interest and so, with a mate interested as well, we thought we would get a few each for a project we are doing.

Now I would have liked to have written this sooner but there were delays in the product actually getting to Tony and the Wargames Factory Team from their outsourced manufacturer. This is one of the perils of outsourcing. However I just want to congratulate the team for handling things very well. They kept in contact and were really good about the whole thing.

My initial impression of the miniatures is clouded by my many years of using GW miniatures so immediate comparisons to Imperial Guard, the Cadian Plastic Boxes in particular, were made. The castings of the sprues was really good and there is really very little work in preparing the parts for assembly. The contents of each box is six identical sprues with three bodies on each with enough extra parts to overload a pack mule. So in each box you get six of the following sprue.

Image courtesy of The Hogs of War

The mystery head being a tentacle-mouthed one similar to what you might expect from a Genestealer Cult Magos Hybrid or a Cthulu Cultist. The bodies themselves bear a resemblance to Death Corps of Krieg but quite a bit different to the Forgeworld versions. You get alot of extra heads, a mix of normal helmeted heads and mutant heads so you could in fact use them easily for a Traitor Guard list. While that faces aren't quite as detailed as the equivalent GW heads it doesn't really matter IMHO because they still look good and by the time you paint them you won't notice.

The primary guns to me at least, being ignorant of the story behing these minis, appear to be an over-under combo of pump-action shotgun and assault rifle. A little awkward for my taste but, on the whole, cleanly designed. While the number of body poses is limited it is still possible to get a lot of variation out of the kits.

Another thing that really impressed me is that the sprues will stack using the casting vents. So you can stack the large number of sprues in one interlocking pile.

The one let-down for me is the integral base that the bodies are cast with, while it is easy enough to clip off and file back I find it a nuisance. Maybe it is just me.

Price-wise if we compare the $41Au that you pay for a plastic set of Ten Cadians (equates to $4.10 per miniature), to the equivalent cost of around $18.40Au per box when you order the 7xDeal that has free shipping (equates to about $1 per miniature). Yes you have to order seven boxes in the bundle deal to get them this cheap but the other deals are really good (one box is only about $21.80 plus shipping). So already you are making a really big saving on getting that army off the ground.

The downside is that if your FLGS happens to be a GW store don't expect them to let you play with miniatures from another company.

All in all I would rate them 4/5.

They get my seal of approval and have also been passed around the club with a few interested members thinking about placing a group order for some.

Possible uses for these miniatures in gaming other than a substitute for IG include: Infantry models for Post Apocalypse RPGing, Secret Weapons of the Third Reich alternate troops, Maybe Warmachine infantry swaps (kinda hard to justify that last one, as it may confuse other regular Warmachine Players), and a whole lotta other 28mm games that need generic infantry including Alt. History and Steampunk (some of the heads would make neat Cylon Heads).

The 63 I got from splitting the 7 boxes with my mate are being added to my Skitarii Army with a few little parts swaps.

On that last note, Cadian arms will hot-swap with these without any chopping or filling (except on the Cadian Special weapons, which I could never get to fit properly on the Cadians anyway). Additionally the heads can be added to Cadian bodies with very little effort (you have to trim the neck shorter). I suspect the some of the Hasslefree Pulse Rifles or G36Cs would also look really beaut on these guys.

Oh yeah and some of the Flamers had an accident, they got sacrificed to my Storm-Trooper Equivalents for my Skitarii Legio as part of their power-plant backpacks.

Pics of the conversions soon.

Cheers

Subby

DSM Goes Live!

As per my last post I am going to be out of work come Thursday as my Department is being shut down.

Not going to sit on my laurels however!

To remedy my need for money I am going to go Live Full Time with my Miniatures Company as of next week. I will be available 9am-5pm weekdays for consultation as per the Commissions statement (also in my last post) via Email, or even Phone if you are a Brisbane local.

As I have not yet got my web-store completely sorted out I will be taking initial orders via email requests and selling castings in white metal on Ebay.

I am starting with a small number of generic, yet quite quirky minis, one of which had some work done tonight that you can check out here.

I may get bogged down as I have been approached by a fledgeling Board Games Company to potentially sculpt a number of figures for them to get drop poured as gaming pieces. Additionally I am also offering local companies CAD outsourcing support under hourly rates, so some days I will get to do something a little different. But don't worry I have a trained servitor on hand to do castings and bag up orders. So do not fear, I will get you your goods if you order some.

So remember: no matter how bad things can seem, something good is bound to happen if you give to others.

On that note don't forget to Donate to the Storm Wardens Project as every dollar helps!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Make some Lemonade!

So I haven't been around a lot for the last couple of weeks because Life has taken a detour from what was normal for me. For the first time in seven years I find myself without direction or a partner for moral support. Add to that my Department being shut down this Thursday means I will be out of work, possibly for a while.

Not letting it get me down though!

For One I am taking Painting/Sculpting/Converting Commissions again. Something I have had on hold for a couple of months due the Titan Project.

Full details can be found here.

Secondly I am going to be clearing some of my stuff on Ebay, generally stuff I don't need, but I will post a list on here for a couple of days before launching the Auction so that anyone who is interested has a chance to make me an offer. Some of the items will include some of the rare/oop miniatures and other hobby related stuff that I have multiples of, so keep your eyes peeled.

Thirdly I am going to seriously get cracking on the production of my own resin multi-piece kits. I have a few ready to make master moulds of and a few more half done. If you want some unique stuff for what I would call a reasonable price I will be selling them on Ebay to start and later in my webstore when I can fix the SQL Database and upgrade my hosting plan. If you have anything specific you want don't hesitate to email me as per the commissions link above.

Lastly I am taking a full week away for the first time in 18 months, to get my affairs in order and take a break to get my head back on straight. If you place any requests between the 9th and 16th of this month I may not get back to you until the 16th.

Just did a painting session with the lads tonight and got a full 10 minis 90% done in one sitting. So already I am making progress towards something.

Till next time

Cheers

Subby

A Question of Strength...

This is what the toes on the Warlord Titans I am building are going to look like.

For more stability I have decided to use six on each foot (rather than the standard four but bear with me). However this has brought me to a conundrum...

I would likely have to scratch build the 24 toes I need to build the two titans! Or I could simply cast them.

It is not that I am lazy or something but I don't have a huge amount of time available these days. So I decided to cast the multiples. However this presents its own inherent risks in application.

Firstly Warlord Titans in 40K scale are surprisingly big, Even with the sketches having rough scales on them and doing the CAD build you don't get a real idea of what you have gotten yourself into until you start slabbing out the torso superstructure. Being large they will require some serious strength to support their weight. I am not so sure that the resin I use will have adequate shear strength to do the job.

Secondly the Titans are likely to be a little top heavy, given their design. This alone presents a lot of issues in a gaming environment. Coupled with their immense size it is a catastrophe waiting to happen.

I was thinking of Casting the toes out of white metal, as I have the stuff on hand to do it.

It will be a strong homogeneous material that will help counterbalance the top heavy nature of the beast.

Any thoughts/suggestions from the group at large?

Cheers

Subby

Productive Afternoons

It has been a little while since I posted anything on the progress of the Titan Project so I thought I would pop a quick post up to share the results of the hour I spent this long weekend on it (yeah so I had a whole lot of other things going on).

So I got the main structural supports cut out and ready to glue to their cross members (not pictured!).

As you can see this little Sternguard Veteran is wondering just what trouble is "Over there!"

Anyhow I have the cad about 90% nailed, just gotta finalise the turret mounts for the shoulder weapons (which I have sketched) and the thighs, which are going to need a little revision from my sketches. Then it is a whole lotta cutting, glueing sanding and painting before the second weekend in November.

In case you are wondering 'Is that a kitchen table?!?'...

Yes, Warlord Titans are big when the are accurately scaled.

As always have fun.

Subby

Thanks FTW Group.

So I have for a long time been around the inter-webs, I remember the old days of BBS and MUDS and stuff like that. Hell I remember telnetting into data directories because it was fun to learn (gasp!). When they began, 4CHAN and /B and other places of redundant logic I used to find funny, now that I am older, I don't.

What am I getting at?

In the last six months in particular the online groups dedicated to hobby have seen some pretty vicious flame-wars, personal attacks (online and offline), and a massive growth of profanity that is getting well and truly out of control. I used to be a regular on the old GW hobby forums, and after a while they got carried away, notice how they got the axe when the new revamps of the site happened. I am sure if the members where better behaved they would have stayed, although that is speculation on my part that you can feel free to dismiss if you are so inclined. BOLS I used to frequent almost daily, this has stopped with the recent wave of spite spreading across the group. Hell, Spencer over at 40K Radio shut his podcast down because of threats/abuse levelled against him and his family by gutless people who, quite clearly, have no sense of honour or integrity.

So You're Saying What Now?

We are all fans of little plastic and metal collectable models...

We all have "Real Lives."

Many of us have Wives/Kids/Family, some of us Are Kids or have kids that browse!

Occasionally we ALL need to take a deep breath before we hit that "send" button and realise we need to grow up and be decent members of society.

Do I agree with everything everyone says online? Of course not, I am human and like to form my own opinions, and it is unhealthy not to. However belittling, threatening or abusing Fellow Hobbyists because they have a different opinion is just downright low. Period. Using profanity or sexualised commentary for the sake of it, and for attention grabbing factors are just immature and a downright waste of space. There really is no excuse for it.

So What Am I Getting At?

I want to thank Ron, and all the other members of FTW for running a tight ship. The rules are easy to stick to and well written, so you are well aware if you are doing anything wrong. John Lambshead, Drax, Mr Justin, Dave Taylor and Corbs, Mike & John at Santa Cruz are among the list of bloggers I have the greatest respect for. They contribute great things in a well spoken manner that should be an example to all of us. As a group I think that FTW is one of the best groups online, member-wise and content-wise, because of the rules rather than in spite of them. The things you say and do define how people perceive and remember you. The fact it has great tips and content is what made me join FTW. The mature, well-written posts by the members is what makes me stay and promote the group. It is the same thing that has lead Ron and the Boys to take on the Storm Wardens Charity Project. Giving your time, for free, to something greater than yourself is a great thing. While time issues prevents me from chipping in, I applaud the team and will definitely be doing some Ticket shopping as soon as my pay check clears.

So Thanks FTW Members for being a shining beacon in the darkness.

Lastly; If you read this and have a similar story of why you like/joined FTW or a particular blog, drop us a line. You never know it might kick off something regular or, at the very least, spark some interesting intellectual stimulation.

Cheers All

Can You Name That Theme Song? - FTWCP

This is a Happy Khorne Dreadnought...

Why is this KD so happy? Why does he have his hands thrown in the air in praise to the Dark Gods?

Because He gets to come out of the Gaming Case to kick off this post about choosing a theme for your army. This dreadnought, that I put together and converted when the plastic dreads were first released, shows a few important things about theme.

1) You can easily use random bits, green stuff and some plastic-card to convert a vehicle to match up with the theme of your army. Once you do this you can then quickly paint it to match the paint scheme.

2) You don't have to neglect the base, even if it is pre-molded.

In this instance I have added a slightly modified Skeleton to complete the skull that was on the base to begin with. I also added some grass made from old paint brush hairs to break up the whole thing with some spot colors.

Below I will give examples of both of these methods and various combinations of the two. Including the extension of these methods to objectives and Game Specific miniatures.

This Red Corsairs Rhino shows another way to enhance the theme of your army. While not extensive the conversions make this miniature unique. While I have scratch built this particular bit of Red Corsairs Iconography from plastic-card there are many upgrade kits out there to add similar bits to you miniatures to make them yours. While I could have painted this on (indeed I painted a larger one on the top hatch), I thought it would stand out more if I did it this way.

Moulded details, brass etch bits and themed conversions can be easily used to quickly make an army yours. I many cases these details can also make the miniatures both easier to paint, and you can add extra painted detail to the raised parts without fear of messing up the other details.

This is SGT Cromarte, named for the eponymous school teacher terminator from the TV Series. He started as an off hand remark and was made reality with a head swap and some icon filing. He was painted to to match the scheme for the rest of my scouts. Here the theme of the character is derived from the fluff behind the rules. He represents a hard-bitten veteran who has seen some serious action (represented by his bionics and old school rank insignia), that has been tasked with training the new recruits. A simple slate base with some muted greys and a gaunt skill add to the look by making it look like his camo cloak really would help conceal him.

Here is Cromarte with a few of his WIP pals. If you look at the middle mini you will notice a chunk of Cities of Death building. Small off-cuts and other bits that you would otherwise not use can be quickly used to add character to your bases. In this case I am steadily re-doing my whole marine army (except my Deathwatch Kill Team), in bases that suit my city terrain. As the scouts are newer additions to my marines they get the whole treatment from the start, the rest will get soaked in water until the white glue is soft enough to remove the old flock. They will also get updated highlights and some paint re-touches.

Doing it this way can revive your interest in an army you may have otherwise abandoned for various reasons. In my particular case my marines were never really themed other than "Vanilla" Marines that I use to learn the new rules with each Edition. This way it will encourage me to game more often with them, and I can revisit some of my favourite miniatures without buying a whole new army. On top of that it encourages me to get the crew over more often to game with my terrain, rather then meeting at our not-so-local-friendly-gaming-store.

The scout on the right is the result of my need for just one more scout to finish the army. In this instance I had a couple of choices. I could have sculpted a pair of legs, as I had the rest of the body as leftover bits. Instead I chose to do a neat little theme base where the scout appears to be climbing out of some industrial piping after cutting the mesh covering open.

Here is an example of basing two different armies the same to suit a purpose. In this case the Deathwatch Brother Captain on the left has a resin base from Back-2-Base-ix. The Genestealer on the right has a plastic base that has had textured plastic-card added to match the resin one. Both have been painted as if they were on starship. I themed these bases this way because these models are used as alternate forces for both Kill Team and Space Hulk. As per my previous example with the scouts I have themed that bases to match the majority of the terrain they will be used upon. This isn't to say that these models would be out of place on a Cities of Death or Necromunda table either.

The strategic application of scratch built bases to match some resin ones that you have run out of, especially if the amount you need is less then one packet of resin ones, will keep money in your pocket. I will also save you the headache of trying to work out what to use the, now excess, resin bases for.

Pre-cast bases such as the one on this Forgeworld Moderati need not be boring. A simple addition of some flock, in this case some snow flock, in addition to some strategic washes can really bring a little theme or story to life.

This guy and his two friends I use as objective markers. The theme is that they have just climbed out of the wreck of their steed and the oil and other hot fluids have stained the snow he is walking across. Simple little themes like this can be conveyed by strategic use of the base to create micro-dioramas.

In my last post I showed this guy. Here I have have used the light colours of the base to counter-balance the dark colours of the Skitari. Also the theme of ancient unexplored ruins presented by the design of the bases brings to mind the omnipresent background theme of the Adeptus Mechanicus searching ruins for lost STC fragments.

A close-up of one of the weapons platform sized resin bases from Dragonforge, the strategic use of symbols on bases can also add to the them of your army. If you regularly face a particular opponent or army you can add little bits of their icons and armour to your bases for a bit of fun. Both players could even use these like kill markings, adding one every time a mini "kills" a character or special unit. Just a little fun added into the game for everyone that can bring hobby back to rewarding those "Cool" moments that good gamers have during games.

Here are the rest of the bases ready to have Skitarii mounted on them, using the same set of resin bases for the whole army makes sense as no matter how incongruous the units are, the bases will tie the army together thematically. When doing this, especially if using the counter-balance of colours method, it is often a good idea to paint the bases separate from the minis. Barring any elaborate posed that require the minis to be on their bases, it can make the painting quicker as you need not worry so much about "not keeping to the lines."

Lastly here is a group shot of my Thousand Sons Army. This is diametrically opposed in how the army is themed to the last example. Here the theme of the miniatures has dictated the choice of both the force composition and the bases. Theme armies like this, and any cult army is especially susceptible to this path, are built around the colour scheme and army choices. However, in keeping with the sorcerous theme, the bases have been basically sanded and painted in dark browns and blacks to represent land blasted by the unnatural energies of the warp.

So I leave you with a few tips and things to ponder about theme and armies. Hope you enjoy.

A big thanks to Ron for sending this topic out as I had been thinking about this for a while and wondered if I should write it down.

A also want to apologise for the poor quality of some of the pictures in this post, my digital camera's auto focus was playing up today, I may have to get it looked at.