GW Customer Service to The Rescue!

Like so many of us, it can take me months, sometimes years, to get started on a purchased miniature.  Indeed, it’s often be said that the whole industry would collapse if people built and painted everything before purchasing more shiny things.  While this habit is an intrinsic part of many of our hobbies, sometimes it can potentially bite you in the arse.

Last Saturday after finishing my Bloodletters, I thought I’d make a start on the Finecast Dark Eldar Succubus I purchased about a year ago.  When I bought it, I did performed a cursory examination of the contents before moving onto whatever it was I was working on at the time (these, I think).  Evidently this was not enough, since when I opened the blister pack I discovered this:

I’m fairly certain she’s supposed to have a cheekbone on her right side too.

 

Looks like her tailor cut away some of her robes. I’m pretty sure he’s dead now.

 

Hip armour? Who needs hip armour!

This discovery presented me with a couple of problems.  While I was reasonably confident I’d bought it within the last year, the new GW website that had appeared in the interim meant that I couldn’t check for my order number.  Secondly this particlar model has been superseded with a plastic version.  Nevertheless I decided to chance my arm and fire off an email.  I was pleasantly surprised with their response.

Click to enbiggen

While I was half-hoping they’d send me out one of the new plastic Succubus models, I can’t really complain.  Plus now it’ll only cost me £30.50 to try and win a Golden Ticket 😉

 

A Bit of A Spanking

Well, that could have gone better…

Today, Tim and I played a 2,500 point Maelstrom of War mission pitting his alliance of Reavers Redemptor and Dark Angels/Guardians of The Covenant against my Heralds of Desolation with some Dark Eldar who happened to be passing thorough.

My army, ready to deploy. So full of hope.

It started so well.  I took the first turn and quickly secured some VPs thorough first blood and taking objectives.

Turn one

 

Wyches of the Cult of Red Grief clear some Dark Angels from an objective. In their haste to make the first kill they don’t notice the rest of the Unforgiven racing to avenge their fallen brethren…

The tide of the battle truly turned when I got cocky with Marax, my Daemon Prince warlord.  In the first turn his psychic attacks caused significant damage and his stat line made me think he’d be able to weather a turn of fire, especially as he was flying.

Fucking Flakk Missiles.

Wounded, he crashed to the ground, and was then picked apart by the combined fire power of several squads.  He didn’t even get the chance to summon any Bloodletters!

With my main psyker gone, Tim took his Culexis Assassin and went after my Sorcerer.  Killing him and his bodyguard (with a little help from the Reaver’s Chapter Master and retinue), the creature was finally brought low by the massed fire of fifteen Cultists.

What didn’t help at all was Heldrake and Terminators getting lost en route to the battle, but the time the turned up it was all over.

My tardy Heldrake and Terminators finally make an appearance.

Tim expertly dismantled the remaining elements of my force by the end of the fourth turn.

The final few Heralds make their last stand on top of a manufactorum.

What did I learn?  Well once again my impetuousness significantly hurt me early on.  I need to have a better plan for when my reserves don’t turn up and I also need to work on better delivery mechanisms for my Berserkers (so, I basically need a Land Raider).  I also have to remember that just because my Daemon Prince is immortal, doesn’t mean he can’t be banished mid-battle!

Anyhoo, I had a great time against a fine opponent and an excellent chap. After he left I decided to build some more units which I hope to have ready for the next time we meet.  However, rather than getting some power armoured traitors built, I went for a far sexier option.

More Wyches and a new Archon

My plan is to pick up a third Raider next month.  Hopefully next time my Dark Eldar will be a true ally rather than a point sink.  We’ll see 🙂

This Warmonger’s Christmas (including my Warmonger Secret Santa!)

Given that my wife and I have just bought a house (we moved in on Christmas Eve!), our mutual gift giving was a somewhat modest affair.  That said, my beloved did surprise me and as well as getting me the BluRay box set of Dollhouse (mmm, Eliza Dushku… focus, John!),  she also surprised me with a box of Dark Eldar Wyches.  I’ve been really needing to add more of these crazy elfs to my army so as soon as my Hobby Room is complete I’ll get these churned out.

However first I’ll finish part of my lovely Warmonger Secret Santa gift.  I received a set of snap-fit Warriors of Chaos, a clutch of Doctor Who cards and a copy of Legends of The Space Marines.  The Doctor Who cards were last seen being spirited away by my wife no doubt for some nefarious reason and as I already have a copy of the book I gave it to Tim (he of the Reavers Redemptor posts) as he was one of those who kindly helped us move last week.

As for the three Warriors of Chaos, you have no idea how hard it was not to buy the Army book and start a force as the whole range is lovely.  However in a rare moment of strength I resisted and am halfway through painting them as Warriors of Khorne.  I really wanted to get them done before the move but time ran out, hopefully they’ll be done over the next week or so.

 

 

What I have planned for December

Please note, this is called what I have planned for December, what I actually end up doing is another matter entirely.

Right, now with that excuse proviso out of the way let’s get started.  Obviously there are important Real Life matters that annoyingly get in the way like moving house and the whole festive merry-go-round but I’m leaving those off this list and concentrating on the really important stuff.  So, in no particular order I aim to:

• Complete painting my Imperial Bastion
• Complete the last three mutated Chaos Space Marines
• Complete the Khorne Berserker Rhino
• Experiment with some knightly liveries for my Bretonnians
• Finally finish building my Dark Eldar Ravager and Razorwing and get them basecoated
• Paint a couple of Dark Angels to see how they look

See, not extensive and if I can get through a third of that I’ll be really happy.

Converted Dark Eldar Wyches

Not much hobby done this weekend since I have my PRINCE2 exam next week (gulp).  However, I was able to convert two old metal Dark Eldar Wyches with special weapons in order to make them legal under the current rules.

I also did not preorder Crusade of Fire.  No, sir.

Lost in The Warp

As you can probably see, much to my frustration this blog’s not been that active in September.

Mainly this was because I’ve been putting in far too many hours at work due to a number of boring Real Life reasons (Autumn Budget Review, Non-Current Asset Register amalgamations etc); normally this would not stop me inflicting my mundane and petty ramblings on you, dear reader, however during the precious moments I’ve had away from my desk I’ve actually been doing things far more useful.

I’ve actually been hobbying!

Yes, I know it’s strange but after my recent lament about losing my way I’ve actually found it again!  Over the past few weeks I’ve been mainly working on getting my long suffering Chaos Marine project up to speed in time for the new codex, my kitbashed dreadnought (Project: Audrey if you follow me on Twitter) is at the painting stage, I have a couple more squads built and undercoated and my bike squad is coming along nicely.  I’ve also been working on their background, it’s in draft form but I’m waiting to see if there are any fluff changes in the new codex before I put it to bed.

I’ve also been slowly chipping away at the massive backlog of Bretonnian and Dark Eldar minis, while they’re not as far on as the Chaos stuff it’s still encouraging to see a bit more progress every time I put down my paint brushes.

In short, I’m back and I look forward to inflicting more articles and finished projects on you in the near future 😀

My Glamourous Assistant

I’ve not managed to get as much hobby done thus far this weekend, despite what my wallet thinks.

At least however I now have an assistant…

Hitting a Brick Wall

That’s it. I knew that this was going to happen eventually but I’m officially stuck. You see, today marks a dubious record for me as it’s been exactly four weeks since I’ve picked up a paintbrush, dice or craft knife and I’m not sure how to start again thanks to all the part-finished projects I’ve temporarily abandoned.

I’ll get my excuses out of the way. This summer has been extraordinarily busy, at work our annual audit took longer than expected not to mention I’m both breaking in new staff and have just finished a massive office relocation at incredibly short notice. At home my wife and I have had to complete her application for permanent settlement in the UK, believe it or not this has taken us over three months to finish, we only just posted it yesterday! There have also been weddings, a funeral, birthdays, the Edinburgh festivals, hospital appointments and this is just what I can remember. In truth I feel that my feet haven’t hit the ground since early June!

On the hobby front I have the following outstanding:

1. A half-painted Dark Eldar Venom
2. A half-painted Dark Eldar Wych Squad
3. An unpainted old metal Dark Eldar Wych Squad
4. A half-painted Finecast Commissar Yarrick
5. 20 Unassembled Imperial Sector sprues
6. An unpainted metal Dark Eldar Incubi Squad
7. An unpainted Finecast Dark Eldar Archon
8. An unpainted Finecast Dark Eldar Succubus
9. An unpainted Finecast Dark Eldar Haemonculus
10. An unpainted Finecast Dark Eldar Lhamaean
11. An unassembled Dark Eldar Razorwing
12. An unassembled Dark Eldar Ravager
13. A part-assembled Chaos Space Marine Predator
14. An unpainted Chaos Space Marine Terminator Lord
15. An unpainted Chaos Space Marine Squad
16. An unpainted Chaos Space Marine Terminator Squad
17. A half-completed Assault on Black Reach Dreadnought I’m converting for my Chaos Marine army.
18. Two sprues of Battletech Battlemechs that I’ve had since 1996
19. 14 Inner Sphere Battletech Battlemechs I’d like to repaint
20. 18 unpainted Bretonnian Knights of The Realm
21. 15 unassembled Bretonnian Men-At-Arms
22. 40 unpainted Bretonnian Peasant Bowmen
23. 10 unpainted Bretonnian K nights Errant
24. 1 unassembled Bretonnian Lord with Great Weapon
25. 1 unpainted Bretonnian Paladin with Battle Standard
26. 1 unpainted Bretonnian Pegasus Knight
27. 1 half-painted Deathknell Watch

So, what do I do? Thus far I have always prided myself on my ability to not jump on the new army / game bandwagon every time something exciting is released, all my 40K armies have been gestating for many years (and I have the out of date Codexes to prove it!) but I think it’s obvious that my enthusiasm and ambition have slowly got the better of me.

I’ve attempted to prioritise my hobby time based on upcoming games but since most of my regular opponents have been similarly busy this really hasn’t been effective. It’s impossible to go with what I like the most since that’s part of what’s got me into this state in the first place!

I think that the best thing for me to do is to bloody finish something as soon as is humanly possible and luckily I have this coming Sunday free to do just that. But what do I attempt to finish?

Watch this space…

40K (and Hobbit) Release List?

Well, well, well, this is interesting. Warseer have published what is apparently a list of the forthcoming 40K and Hobbit releases from GW. You can see it here.

Take some time to look at this, then look at it again. :-O

I think my wallet’s going to be very unhappy with me!

Dark Eldar Mandrakes

This weekend I managed to finish my first set of Dark Eldar Mandrakes.  I bought these about a year ago just before they were replaced by the Finecast versions so I’m looking forward to finding out if there’s any discernible difference when I expand the squad later.

Not only did I complete them but a mere twelve hours after the paint had dried, they were fighting the Imperium’s finest in a battle to the death.  If I’m honest they were my unit of the match (I’m I’m really honest they were the only unit that did any real damage!); they came in on reserve on the right flank and before the marines knew what hit them they’d disabled a Predator.

What happened to them (and the rest of my force) after that turn is best forgotten…