I returned to the model desk! and 'How a haircut = more cavalry'?

Wow, people in the blogging world have been busy –weddings, moving houses, new jobs etc etc LIFE!  But who would have thought that wargamers would have lives!? Aren’t they all nerdy single men that live in the attics of their parents houses? Apparently not, apparently there are girls, jobs, houses, kids, holidays, mates, and lots of cool accessories and distractions that the modern nerd needs in his life.

Yeah, I feel it. I haven’t been at my modelling desk since -ummm- the end of November -Ouch! This has been in an attempt to finish my PhD thesis. I had planned to get it out by February but that flew by, then I thought end of March. Well it’s now mid-April and there is still a lot more to do. The issue is I keep underestimating how much work goes into an 80,000 word thesis.

Anyho, on the weekend I through my hands (and papers) into the air and sat down at my modelling desk – just for a bit. Oooh hello cavalry.

New Paint Déjà vu

I was perusing an old White Dwarf (WD), well not just any old WD – it was issue 222 from June 98. Rings a bell? Well you may know it as the issue containing the ‘Last Stand at Glazer’s Creek’. Here are few shots for the fans...

Praetorians' sir, they’re everywhere!

Last week it was Col. Gravis' 4th Praetorian glory boys on face book this week its Col. Winterborne's 4th Praetorian Mechanised on the GW site!

Just wanted to make sure nobody misses this cool revisiting of the good old "Massacre at Big Toof River" in the "What's New Today" write up. Also more here too!

Hey, I know those chaps!

I Just saw these shots on the Warhammer World face book page for Throne of Skulls. When the first one popped up I said with a grin "Hey that's Gravis' work!"

Facebook-Throne of Skulls Jan 2012

Breathtaking stuff Col. Gravis. Its great to see Ackland and the Duelist out and about (my most favored models of all time)!
Colonel Ackland
The Duelist

Happy OZ day! & thoughts on Warhammer 120k? hmmmm.

Allow me to interrupt the standard modelling posts to say Happy Australia Day everyone.

VICTORY on Oribella VII! The Macharian Thunder Guard are proclaimed heroes after the Battle of Little Red!

Crushing Victory. The Thunder Guards' glorious battle history is preserved. Will they ever be defeated!?

How I did my Rough Rider helmet plumes

Colonel Scipio asked about my helmet plumes and I realised I never loaded up any pics of the wire plumes. So if anyone is curious here is how I did it.

Reinforcements Approved: its now 3500p list.

My nemesis sent me a message; "I checked the points for my list and it came to 3500p, oops" to which I replied "don't worry I'll add a few more men..."

So, what does my list need?

3000p List - "Thunder Brigade" for the Oribella VII Battle of Little Red

Praetorian Expeditionary Officers and Imperial Allied Commanders of His most gracious Imperial Guard.

Presently elements of the the 1st of foot (Macharian Thunder Guard) and support regiments will depart en rout to the xeric single-biome planet of Oribella VII - known by the imperial indigenous as 'Rubella' (Little Red). A small cohort of fanatical Space Marines have been designated 'Renegade' by the illustrious Inquisitor Lady Marwood and it has fallen to my subordinate Colonel Lord Praetori (Honorifica Imperialis, Order of Macharious, Knight of Medusa) and his boys to reconcile their souls to the mighty Emperor. I have personally received credible intelligence that the enemy relies on orbital drop pod assault tactics and utilises master crafted melta, flamer and thunder hammer weapons. 

I have noted much recent correspondence on the matter of task force formation. As such, I earnestly supplicate you, my fellow senior officers, to weigh the following brigade formation for the prior mentioned mission and submit you sentiments (if any) post-hast. 

As the Emperor protects, so must we.

(Acting)Brigadier-General Ackland. 

Games Workshop? shakes head again.

120mL of glue for almost the same price as 1L?

Proof that the heads of GW Australia are .... well let me put it another way-
The Intelligence Quotient Scale:
Moron = 50-69
Imbecile = 30-49
Idiot = 5-29
Gamesworkshop CEO = 0-5

Praetorian Cavalry Finished!

With Cavember nearly over I finally have my first 5 cavalrymen finished! I was origenally hoping to have many more done, but 5 is a start. In truth just getting anything finished is really good for me.

Cavember Update: My Praetorian Rough Riders WIP

Cavember has been moving on beautifully. Col Gavis has opened up his competition to any rough riders, Victoria Lamb has released her own Cavalry kits and I've seen a few really stunning Praetorian cavalry conversions. An honourable mention has to go to Col Winterborne, Check these out:

Victoria lamb's Praetorian conversions kits!

If you haven't seen these yet .....you better check them out!

http://www.victorialamb.com/store.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-Miniatures/162170277152776#!/pages/Victoria-Miniatures/162170277152776

Cavember - Fifth and Sixth move- Conversions and Colour

Conversion and Extras

Obviously the options here are endless so I’ll just cover what I’m up to.

I have added head plumes (still a WIP), chainswords, pistol pouches, an ammo crate and bed roll. As well as making my own lances (as mentioned in a previous post), taking off the reins, chaos markings & spikes, and green-stuffing the horses and helmets.  

Here is where I am up to:

Cavember -Third and Forth move- Bodies and Heads.

Bodies

Easy move. It’s got to be col Gravis’s conversion kits. Hands down the best bodies you will find to match our Praetorian/Mordian armies.

Heads

A few choices here.

The top choice would have to be the secret weapon heads. Im going with these. But there are lots of other head options if you want to stay with pith helets or diversify a bit.

http://www.secretweaponminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=23&products_id=115&zenid=ufvd60g2c12uql2p10va225e46

Cavember -Second move- Mounts!

Mounts

I have already mentioned this in a previous post, but let’s investigate this again.

Col. Gravis designed his conversions to fit on to outrider horses so this is the obvious choice. But what are the other options?

Cavember -first move- What bases to use; Bike bases, terminator bases or fantasy cavalry bases?

Welcome to CAVEMBER!!

We had the Melbourne Cup (horse race) today in Oz, so it was a very fitting day to launch Cavember. While Victorians got a public holiday I went to work like the rest of Australia, but gambled, drank beer and knocked off early like a good Aussie.

On to the cavalry (tee the bugle call)! Let's start with the basics- bases!

Macharian Crusade novel is coming!

WOW. For all those fans of BoLS Macharian Crusade mini-dex, last week Black library has posted up the artwork for an upcoming Macharian Crusade novel. It will be authored by William King and titled Angel of Fire.

http://www.blacklibrary.com/Blog/ANGEL-OF-FIRE.html


July 2012 is set as the release date.

Cant wait.
... until then I'll be rereading Imperial Glory ... again. :)

-Advanced Warning. Praetorian Cavalry / Rough Riders: Standby for 'Cavember'. End Message-

Praetorian Expeditionary Officers and Imperial Allied Commanders of His most gracious Imperial Guard.

November is hereby declared "Cavember".

I will be doing my upmost to have my detachment of Cavalry (courtesy of Col. Gravis) ready for frontline duty.

I know many of your regiments have received your own supply of Gravis's elitist chaps, so i respectfully urge you to do the same.

Victory is imperative.

Sign up here to follow.

If you feel inclined to leave your command bunker and joining the heroic charge yourself, post below so we all can celebrate your conquest.

Prise be the Emperor and Tally Ho!

Col. Ackland

New beginnings; cavalry, an elite trooper and a fortess monastery

This month I moved house. Between that and work the modelling was light. Despite this there was some interesting progress…

Cavalry