Greetings!

I kept meaning to get around to this but life has a funny way of eating up your free time, doesn’t it?

Anyway, a bit about myself and my hobby. Like many other kids of the eighties my first real exposure to table top gaming game with the arrival of Heroquest and Space Crusade, shortly thereafter I picked up a copy of Rogue Trader from a tiny gaming shop run by a school friend’s family in Wormit, Fife. At the same time I picked up my first metal mini, the old Imperial Jetbike with an Imperial Guard rider operating a grenade launcher seemingly unconcerned that his was piloting an open-topped super fast vehicle without using his hands!

Like almost every kid I gravitated towards the Space Marines and soon I had a respectable force of Blood Angels, each model containing enough paint to easily service an entire squad but I was young and far too enthusiastic. By the end of secondary school I had amassed a 5,000 point Blood Angels army, a 3,000 point Eldar army, a burgeoning Imperial Guard force, 3,000 points of an Epic Tech Guard army, 2,000 or so points of High Elves, a completely hopeless human Blood Bowl Team, an (as yet) unbeaten Orlock gang and a two decent Battletech armies, one Inner Sphere and one Clan.

Then uni happened and I discovered beer, girls and eventually gainful employment.

Fast forward to 2009 and while I had dabbled a bit in the modelling side of the hobby it took a £50 GW gift voucher from my then fiancée to really kick-start my love affair again. Since that fateful June day I have been very busy much to my now-wife’s amusement, support and occasional ridicule. Due to time and budget constraints I’m only concentrating on 40K for the moment and presently I’m working on the following armies.

Imperial Guard: The 57th Menasan

Hailing from the unique planet of Menasa deep within the Calixis sector, a planet mined so extensively for force blade minerals it’s now in two separate parts each orbiting the other. Due to the nature of their main export they are subject to frequent attacks by Chaos raiders, as such theirs is a fortress world. Taking much inspiration from the successes of Cadia and other Chaos-ravaged planets, those who do not toil in the vast underground mines are subject to military service.

Although this is my oldest army since getting back into the hobby I’ve only recently started working out their background (and it shows!) but I’m working with a writer friend who’s also a fellow civil servant and member of my RPG group to include Menasa as a location in our next Dark Heresy adventure so I have a few more months to flesh things out fully.

Presently it’s a little over 4,000 points and I’ve recently built my first super heavy, the Baneblade Fury of Menasa which I’m currently still painting.

Chaos Space Marines: The Heralds of Woe

In the late 38th Millennium the High Lords of Terra authorised a secret project to create a new chapter of Space Marines who’s sole purpose was to explore out with the reach of the Astronomicon. Their goal was to finish the Great Crusade and bring the last of Terra’s lost children in to the Imperium. The origins of their gene seed is unknown although many suspect some kind of heretical amalgam of several strains were used. In any case, the truth behind this, along with the original name of this chapter, has been excised from history because of what followed.

Almost century after embarking on their mission they passed the threshold of the Astronomicon’s influence and disappeared. Two thousand years later ships matching the designs of their fleet began appearing along the eastern fringe of the Imperium and one by one the most remote systems and star forts began to fall silent. Those who fled talked about electric blue armoured warriors calling themselves the ‘Heralds of Woe’ who had returned to the Imperium to bring the light of The Truth to humanity.

Before too long the Inquisition captured a member of ‘The Enlightened’, a group made up of those converted by the Heralds. He told of the absolute truth that The God Emperor was in fact the fifth and most powerful Chaos God and that only by acknowledging and embracing this truth can humanity be saved. Since then the Heralds have fought to enlighten all those whom they encounter, particularly brother Astartes, those they best in battle are given a stark choice, convert or be sacrificed to The Emperor.

This is a relatively new project for me; as such I only have a couple of squads, a Terminator Lord and an almost complete Dreadnought I’m converting from an AOBR model. Chaos-wise they are more or less servants of Chaos Undivided however they do have some Tzeentch leanings which I hope to expand upon when I work out more of their background.

One of the elements that I’m really looking forward to is the inclusion of Enlightened Marines which would be those who converted from other Chapters. They’ll be basic CSM squads led by an Aspiring Champion but most of the models will be standard Space Marines with their original Chapter liveries with the occasional part of HoW replacement armour and, of course, their original markings crudely scored out. I’m looking forward to including members of some of my regular SM opponents armies in these squads.

Dark Eldar: As yet untitled Kabal.

After a particularly bloody attempt to topple the ruling classes of Commorragh a brother and sister fled with the remnants of his Kabal and her Wych Cult to the farthest reaches of Dark City. There they encountered an ancient Haemonculus known only as The Grandfather who claimed to be their distant descendent and agreed to help them resume their status at a price.

I’ve been collecting Dark Eldar since November 2009 as I’d heard rumours of an impending update and I wanted to have something together for when it was released. I had a solid core finished before the new Codex appeared and I’ve been slowly adding some new units and retrospectively converting the older ones to fit in with the new rules. As yet I’ve only had a couple of games with these guys as it’s still very much a work in progress, I don’t even have a name for these guys!

Aside from these projects I’m an avid roleplayer, I have a regular group of thirty-something gamers and we play a fair number of games from the FFG stable of GW licenses to Serenity, Mage, Spirit of the Century and many more. I also spend some time about once a month bouncing around the hills of Scotland on my mountain bike and very occasionally I go to work.

My aim to update this blog at least weekly with my observations, thoughts and any other drivel that pops into my head. I’m looking forward to showing people some of my works in progress, expanded army background fluff as well as the occasional review and battle report. I hope to entertain, sometimes inform and hopefully not annoy but in any case please feel free to comment either here or by tweeting me @jraferguson.

So long for now, don’t be a stranger.