Cult of December - Nearly There...

I decided not to start on my Rasputina crew until I had one of everything as I have a definite theme in mind and didn't want to start trying to match the paint scheme later on other models.

I was missing a Silent One, Snow Storm and December Acolytes. I've managed to obtain two of those through the wonders of e-bay...

...and have a metal December Acolyte on the way. This means I'm just awaiting it's arrival and the release of the plastic M2E December Acolyte box in order to complete the current pile of models...

...and begin work on my cult of cannibals. I really want to build on the more unpleasant aspects of Decembers followers and have found some inspirational pictures that will give you some idea of what I'm planning on...

My crew a week projects are obviously usually to motivate me to get things done but this one may be spread over a couple of weeks as I'm really looking forward to making a start and want to do a good job. Now I just need to find a crew to do for this week while I'm waiting for the rest of my parts to arrive...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Forge World Bulletin #23

A look at some of the recent event merchandise and some Ultramarines.....

Our latest Bulletin is available now.

There's Klingon's on the Starboard Bow...

I apologise in advance for the following video...

Not so long ago I was introduced to a game system called Star Trek Attack Wing and while using my friends extensive model collection I decided upon Klingons as my chosen faction. The system itself allows you to mix and match between races quite a lot but I decided to stick with just the one.

On the advice of several people I bought two of the starter sets and an additional ship with the purchase of a second additional ship occurring pretty soon afterwards. Despite having a few games spread over the next few weeks it kind of became one of those game systems that I just forgot about as I was focussed on two other game systems primarily (Malifaux and Warzone Resurrection) with the occasional dip into a third and fourth (Warmachine and Deadzone). I was recently reminded of the system for a quick game (again using some-one else's stuff as my case was full of Warzone Dark Legion at the time) and remembered how enjoyable it was and subsequently was offered some-ones small Klingon fleet at a bargain price...it was crammed into a couple of bags and needed sorting but beggars can't be choosers as they say and I promptly stuck them in a box and forgot about them until circumstances that I'll come to in a bit meant I couldn't really do anything particularly constructive that I had planned...

...to the bag of Klingons then...

The gentlemen I acquired them from had apparently already started to re-paint several of them as they have a darker green base colour on them but that's not a problem as I was planning on a re-paint anyway and there was no loss of detail as far as I can tell.

So as for my fledgling fleet it now consists of 3 Vor'cha (only two are pictured as the other is in my un-opened 2nd starter set), 2 Negh'var, 1 D7, 1 K'tinga, 1 Raptor and 1 K'vort as well as the cards that they come with and all the relevant tokens.

Now this is unlikely to become one of my primary systems and I'm not going to spend a great deal of time with it as to be fair it's only really got a look-in now as I was half way through doing an unboxing article on one of the new updated Warzone Resurrection starter sets and ran out of glue but it's something that will make an enjoyable change of pace every now and again. I used to enjoy Battlefleet Gothic and this game is far simpler to pick up and is far better balanced (though that's not difficult in Battlefleet Gothics case) and locally the only other two 'spaceship' games are the Star Wars equivalent to Attack Wing which has (imho) a lot less variety of units and Firestorm Armada which (as regular blog readers will know) I consider to be one of the worst games ever created.

Now I need to pick a simple but effective colour scheme and my (admittedly half arsed) research into Klingons has led me to believe that my primary colour choices are green, light green, dark green or grey...or possibly a greeny grey...

Now I either needed to find somewhere that sold super-glue at three o'clock in the morning or get some painting or photography done instead and then as my camera went flat I decided to turn this set of events into a blog article and then go to sleep...hopefully when this article appears on the internet Monday afternoon I'll have a charged camera and some super-glue but if the way this evening has been going continues it's more likely that my camera has blown up and I've glued my fingers together...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.

Hasslefree Miniatures Newsletter

Some release news and a brief discount for enlisted personnel...be quick though as the discount ends as soon as they start work Monday morning...

TABLE OF CONTENTS • Spring Clean is Done! • Armed Forces Day Sale • 'Vic' Lewinski, Tough as Nails Survivor • Laurie, All-Weather Survivor • Joker, Modern Trooper #8 • Woody, Modern trooper #9 • The Five Eight, Sci-Fi Powered Armour Squad • Lt. Col Morrison of the Five Eight • Lt. Weisser of the Five Eight • Sgt. Rowland of the Five Eight • Private Chapman of the Five Eight • Private de la Fuente of the Five Eight • Merys Thoran, times Three • And Finally... Spring Clean is Done! Thanks everyone for your business during our spring clean, it took a fair while to catch up with it all. Quick note for anyone still waiting for an order, 'please' check to see if anything you ordered was a pre-order figure. It'll have a nice big red note on the item page letting you know :) We're restocking through last week and this one, so not  much to report until the last of the restocks come in with the new releases. We do have a number of resin masters from Kev's May Challenge though and just in time for his July Challenge to start next week! Before we get on with the pretty pics though... Armed Forces Day Sale In celebration of Armed Forces Day here in the UK, we have put a 20% discount on our guys and gals who represent the enlisted. The sale is only for the weekend though so you'll have to be quick, it'll end tomorrow when I get to the office :) That's McKenzie, Sgt. Spanner, Hassle, Bergil, Freak, Demon, Mongrel, Badger, Deano, Giant, Widow, Lazarus, General Sinclair, Harlequin & Major Stephanie. (I've linked the whole page above to save all these being separate links) Also I've applied the discount to their Resin Master versions too and included Joker, Alien and Woody! (Not the 'bitz' page though sorry) Right, pretty pics.... 'Vic' Lewinski, Tough as Nails Survivor Victoria 'Vic' Lewinski is another addition to our survivors. An ex-USAF chopper pilot, they do't come much tougher than her. Armed with killer abs and a modified FN FiveseveN. Seen here enjoying her trademark victory cigar. Laurie, All-Weather Survivor Laurie is a female zombocalypse survivor, a recent addition to the group tha includes Clint and Beth. Armed with a composite bow and dressed a little more practically than some of our other female survivors (Looking at you Jade!) :) Joker, Modern Trooper #8 The Man known only as Joker is Alien's partner in crime (andHarlequin's husband). He comes with a choice of Recoilless Rifle (RPG) or P90. He also comes equipped with the standard MT backpack and the Joker head. (The Joker head is practically identical to the Mongrel head i.e. helmet w goggles, eye protectors and half mask but has an altered neck so that it sits leaning in the other direction, perfect for the bulky RPG and just to give a little variety to those of you who love the Mongrel head so much). Woody, Modern trooper #9 Woody is the first of our kneeling posed Modern Troopers. He comes with a choice of HK416 and Benelli/SPAS style shotgun. He also comes with the Heavy Backpack (b) and the 'Woody' head (boonie hat, eye protectors and half mask). This Kneeling body will be available through our bitz page when Woody arrives in metal and will be useable with all weapons from Hassle, Bergil, Mongrel and Badger. A second kneeling body will be arriving soon and be useable with all weapons from Freak, Demon, Alien & Joker. The Five Eight, Sci-Fi Powered Armour Squad The Five Eight are part of the deep space exploration arm of the Galactic Navy, led by Lt. Col Morrison. They come outfitted in the standard issue 'Lobo class' powered armour and helmet. They are all armed with the standard KW10DU/F  'Shard' Assault Rifle, capable of firing both 10mm depleted uranium and flechette sabot rounds. This multipack consists of Lt.Col Morrison, Lt Weisser, Sgt. Rowland and Privates de la Fuente and Chapman all shown below individually and available separately. This squad pack comes with a 20% discount on the individual prices! Lt. Col Morrison of the Five Eight Lt.Col Morrison is the on again/off again commander of the Five Eight. Here, he comes outfitted in the 'Lobo class' powered armour and helmet. He is armed with the standard KW10DU/F  'Shard' Assault Rifle, capable of firing both 10mm depleted uranium and flechette sabot rounds. The Lt. Col. has retired twice already yet repeatedly finds himself called back into service. Lt. Weisser of the Five Eight Lt. Weisser is a squad leader in the Fiv Eight. He comes outfitted in the 'Lobo class' powered armour and helmet. He is armed with the standard KW10DU/F  'Shard' Assault Rifle, capable of firing both 10mm depleted uranium and flechette sabot rounds. Sgt. Rowland of the Five Eight Sgt. Rowland is Lt. Weissers right hand man and go to guy for solo combat missions. As with the others, he comes outfitted in the 'Lobo class' powered armour and helmet. He is armed with the standard KW10DU/F  'Shard' Assault Rifle, capable of firing both 10mm depleted uranium and flechette sabot rounds. Private Chapman of the Five Eight Private Chapman is a member of Lt. Weisser's squad in the Five Eight. I think we can now dispense with the name and description of the armour, helmet and gun ;) Private de la Fuente of the Five Eight Pvt. del la Fuente is another member of Lt. Weisser's Squad in the Five Eight. (And no, he's not shooting at a small mouse, he is meant to be at ease and looking forward, the helmet design just makes him look like he's developed a real hatred of very small things on the gound :) ) Merys Thoran, times Three Merys Thoran is our original Sci-Fi adventurer of the DSE arm of the Galactic Navy. Originally offered  as a young scout HERE and then offered as, what is supposed to be, her correct incarnation HERE - A freshly minted Lieutenant still preferring her 'Hormiga' Scout Helmet to differentiate her from the regular Five Eight minis. Due to some miscommunication between me and Kev, he 'fixed' her :) So now we also have a variant of her with the standard Lobo helmet. We'll be offering it for now, and maybe for quite a while, as just a resin master. Her correct form with the scout helmet has already been metal moulded so will be available next newsletter, This one we'll have to wait and make a decision on as it's so very similar *blush* Maybe if there's a lot of demand for the slight variant we'll metal mould her in the future? And Finally... Kev has started his own FB artists page so he can update with WIP pics etc. direct from his own desk. If your'e interested in that kind of thing, and let's face it, why wouldn't you be, go and press like to make sure you get the latest updates from the desk of the maestro :) It's already pretty full of awesome pics. Talking of the pint-sized wonder, Kev's July Challenge starts in a few days, make sure to check out our FB page for details as the May Challenge was a huge success and not only led to some of Kev's best minis but really got the community fired up about what they want from us, which resulted in Laurie and Vic above. We'll once again be asking for your input for one, or more, of the minis he'll make for a (probably alcoholic) reward! :) In the next couple of newsletters we'll start to give out some info on our coming premises move. It shouldn't affect service but at most we may be off the grid for a couple of days. We finally have some news regarding our sculpting contest from way back that hit some serious turbulence. Will share that on FB  when we get back from the casters sometime this week and in our next newsletter. A quick shout out to a friendly UK forum - Random Platypus - that has recently opened it's doors to the public proper (It's been up and running privately for a while to populate it a little before being fully open). It's an adult-aimed site so some of the language there is not safe for work or young children but it's an excellent source of information on the miniatures world :) I think that's it, if I've forgotten anything then undoubtedly I will whinge about it on Facebook like it's someone else's fault fairly soon ;) 'til next time, Arty.

Crew a Week Project - Ramos's Reinforcements.

As I had a lot of these assembled due to using them in unboxing articles I thought that they'd make a good 'crew a week' challenge. Now I know that they're not strictly speaking a 'crew' in the 'Starter Box' sense but they certainly qualify in every other area, lol.

Here's Ramos's Reinforcements then...

Alternate Ramos.

For those of you interested in how he compares to the other versions here's a picture of all three in the same colour scheme. For me the alternate one is the best and the is one that I'll be using when I field the crew...not that there's anything wrong with the others...but we all have our favourites...

Joss.

For those of you interested in how he compares to the other version here's a comparison shot of my two painted in the same style...he seems to have hit the gym between editions a fair bit as well as needing a replacement limb...

Brass Arachnid, Electrical Creation, Mobile Toolkit.
The arms fell off the Mobile Toolkit so often that I just gave up on it so it got less work done on it than the others.

Alternate Steampunk Arachnids and Large Steampunk Arachnid.
Inevitably there are some spiders...

Union Miners, Willie the Demolitionist and Soulstone Miner.
Well, someone needs to do the actual work...

Metal Gamin.
Even the most self sufficient Arcanist sometimes needs a bodyguard...

I originally went with a pure metal look but even highlighted it lacked depth and appeared 'unfinished' so at my partners suggestion I added another highlight of brass and that seemed to do the trick...

Mechanical Rider.
This one started off all brass with a highlight and to be brutally honest looked terrible. My better half then confiscated it and added some more colour because I was "going to make a mess of it..." and in half an hour did a better job than I would have managed with a days work...

Thoughts and comments are (as usual) most welcome.