White Dwarf 392 & Wargames Illustrated 298

The first white dwarf after the release of 40K 6th ed and I was slightly disapointed not to find the new choas space marines that have been rumoured for ages taking a starring role, instead we get a new deamon release for both fantasy and 40K.  I'm going to start withe the free daemon booklet that includes rules for the new slannesshi chariots and updates for screamers and flamers for both game systems.  It also introduces soul grinders into fanatsy armies that was a bit of a suprise.  I'm a big fan of this sort of update and I like including it in a seprate handy booklet, although one complaint is that the booklet itself is not sturdy and I don't think will last long.

Of course the new daemons feature prominatly in the main mag as well, with a basic intro to the four main gods and a breif battle report for each system, both of which the daemons win, see if you want to win battles buy the new models ;)  Non-daemon stuff inclues a few pages of player armies with allies, only one of which (the space wolves/imperial gaurd) was really interesting, a fantastic Blanchitsu looking at the plastic nurgle lord and a somewhat naff arena of death trying to sell the new plastic warhammer heroes.  Finally the back cover has a awesome bit of artwork featuring a lord of change.   Overall an OK if not spectacular issuse.

The theme of this months wargames illustrated is the peninsular war, and it's one of the more dominate themes we've had recently, but thats ok, as I'm interested in the peninsular war.  The theme articles include a peninsular war primer, a ridiculously impressive battle of corunna, the battle of salamanca and the battle of avila.  For flames of war we only get a single article which is a look at the soviet invasion of poland and includes a full list for an infantry company.  The other battles featured are the battles of platea and culloden.  Matt parkes teaches us how to paint again, this time clothing and the final article of note is the winners of the salute painting contest, which includes some rather wonderful models.  Like white dwarf the issuse comes across as OK, but not spectacular.

40K Chaos Space Marine Alpha Legion Squad - Part 1

My new alpha legion army now has a legal unit painted!  Although it's not actually finished yet and they will be joined by another 5 marines including one with a flamer and one with a melta gun, which will give me a nice mix of anti-infantry and anti-tank.  This will actually end up being a very flexible unit all round and will normally deploy from a rhino (acquired, but not yet painted).  I'm very impressed with the chaos space marine plastic kit and there's a lot you can do with it, it's also nicely provided me with a load of bits to fix up some of the second hand chaos stuff I brought off ebay.

The painting was actually pretty fidly compared with what I normally do and it took a long time (partly due ot the detail on the models and partly due to the alpha legion scheme), although I think its been worth it and am pleased with the result.  I just need to remember that this is only supposed to be a small force and make sure it doesn't eat up all my painting time for the next year!

Another Imperial Guard Squad & The First Choas Marine

My current Imperial Guard 'Army'

Yet more 40K, I'll start with my second imperial gaurd infantry squad, as before a bunch of catachan repaints.  This means I can now play a basic allied detactment of a HQ and an infantry platoon which I'm looking forward to trying it out with my space marines.  I have another 30 gaurdsmen prepped and ready for painting, though this time cadians.  At first I was worried about mixing cadians and catachans in one small army, but I've decided just to go ahead and paint them and not overly worry about it.

I've made my decision of how to paint my new chaos marines as well and have finally plumped for Alpha Legion.  The background is a bit mysterious and unconclusive which means I can play around with them a bit, from my reading there seems to be cells scattered around imperial space each of which has evolved slightly differently to the others since the heresy.  They also utilse cultists a lot, so I'm hoping the rumours about cultists being in the starter set prove to be acurate.

40K Eldar Fire Dragons

Well 40K definately seems to be becoming the theme of my summer, and today I put the finishing touches to another squad for my eldar army.  I did these fire dragons to provide the eldar army with some much needed punch, as assault guns at S8 melta make a mess of almost anything.  I'm really pleased with how they've come out and I think are my best eldar to date.  I do have a couple of non-40K units on my painting table, but they seem (unitentionally) to be getting left behind.

Decisions, Decisions......

I've gone and done something that could either be considered brave, stupid or awesome, I've started yet another army!  This time continuing with the current 40K theme as it's what we've been playing most of and thats hardly likely to change once we finally get our mits on the new 6th ed.  That army is Chaos Space Marines.  I've bought a bunch of stuff on ebay which hasn't arrived yet, but being impaitent I popped into GW on the way home from work today and came out with a chaos space marine squad.

I've only assembled the couple above, but now its decision time. I can't decide what colour to paint them!  It was going to be easy, I have some khorne berserkers on the way and I was going to paint them all red, but one of my main opponents has gone and done just that with his new chaos army! Gutted, but now I need a new plan, the main two possibilities at the moment seem to be either black legion (which seems too easy and obvious) or possibly alpha legion, but neither 'feels' quite right, I suppose I need to get my thinking cap on!

40K Imperial Guard Infantry Squad

Yep the title says it all really, I've finished the first Infantry squad for my Imeprial Guard allied detachment.  This will form part of the infantry platoon that will be the mandatory troops choice for the detactment.  These have been repainted over an original paint scheme and this shows in places, still I'm happy enough with them.  I've got another squad of these on the painting table at the moment and I've gone and ordered one of those new shiny stormtalon gunships as well.  all this means my Space Marine army is approaching 5000pts, now I just need one of my mates to paint up all their models so we can have a really big battle!

40K Imperial Guard Detactment Command

New 40K is out and one of the most intriuging and controversal new rules is that of allied detactments, and whilst I accept that the chances are someone will find a broken combo somewhere, as a non-tournament player I'm excited by the possibilities.

As it happens I happen to have a few Imperial Guard models in my collection (around 45) which are never going to amount to a whole army, but now find themselves in the painting queue and destined to support to Space Marine Army.  To start off I've painted a Patrol Command Squad and an old Mordian officer who I've painted black and am going to use as a Lord Commissar.  Next up will be a couple of infantry squads to round out the infantry platoon.  I've also finished another objective marker which is a little comms array.