Space Hulk

It's the best game ever. We all know this to be true. There are few games that can get the adrenaline surging like being the Marine player on a 3-minute clock as what feels like thousands of stealers pour down the corridor towards you...

Anyway, as you know I've replaced the terminators with metal ones. Today I dug out the boxes and started figuring out what was there and what wasn't.

First up, the Stealers. All present and correct although they have been painted in my Blue Crab Tyranid colour scheme. This doesn't bother me. The pale colour fits with the lightless confines of space hulk for me. And I have plenty more Stealers if I decide to go old school with them.

There were also the Genestealer hybrids from the expansion. I have no intention of using these but they should be fun to paint up.

There were also the Librarians, continuing the pattern of awful Marine plastic sculpts for this game.

I seem to have a full set of all counters except the doors. Annoyingly I know I've seen them somewhere before we moved house; so the question is do I buy a replacement set from ebay for a tenner or do I design and laser cut my own from MDF?

Lastly, and most annoyingly I have all the rule books and even the hardback campaign book - but not the original Mission book. Does anyone know where I can find a pdf copy of that?

Lastly, and most annoyingly I have all the rule books and even the hardback campaign book - but not the original Mission book. Does anyone know where I can find a pdf copy of that?

Overall I'm very happy - as soon as I can score the missions, I'm ready to play.

And some leftovers in the original paint scheme

WIP

Just a quick update; while I was faffing about with the airbrush I did some work on an old Heresy piece I dug out of the lead pile. The intention is that this will end up in the Dark Elf Dragon Rampant force as a Warbeast - or possibly a Bellicose Foot with Flying.

And the current position:

Space Hulk Part II

First off, the name of the blog has changed; it's based off a post I read somwhere which summed up every experience of my wargaming life: "I had a plan and then dice happened." It was too good to pass up.

Finished off the Terminators. Lots of chips, oil streaks and graffiti. Some in the latin alphabet, some in cyrillic. I'm happy with the overall look; just need to decide on the basing.

First Squad

Second Squad

And the full Space Hulk Expeditionary Force

Space Hulk Part I

This was my other purchase on ebay.

I dug out my old Space Hulk the other week and realised that the plastic terminators had gone missing somewhere along the line. This isn't a disaster as the plastic terminators are, frankly, a bit rubbish.

So a quick scout around shows that 1990 vintage metal terminators are available for very little. So a quick splurge and...

10 terminators for £20 - which, incidentally, is nearly how much the naff plastic ones go for. Madness. 

It seemed like a good opportunity to crack out the airbrush as I could basecoat and highlight in one go. 

Then it was time to start the detail. I decided that the only modern style painting I wanted to do on them was the lighting claw, so a bit of wet blending was called for:

Daylight colour check:

A quick highlight and then on to freehand markings in the old Rogue Trader style. I wanted to go for a soviet style as the Terminators and Dreadnaughts have always put me in mind of tanks; and as a massive T-34 fan, what else can you do?

So here are the two squads looking pristine as if they've just stepped off the dropship. Up next will be the chips, scoring and oilstains to make them look like they've been dumped out on a drifting Space Hulk for a couple of years. The graffiti - a mainstay of the Space Marines I grew up with back in the late 80s - will be in white, just like the stuff you used to see on soviet tanks. I haven't decided whether to do it in the Cyrillic alphabet or not yet. 

Orcs, half-breeds and fearless vampire hunters

I've been having a bit of a trawl round ebay of recent days I scored some Mantic Orcs for my Dragon Rampant warband. I wanted to mix up the racial mix a bit, so some GW Orcs, some Oldhammer Goblins and these chaps should give a varied feel.

A unit of 6 to start - although I'll probably mix and match the varieties within Units in the end - and my first experience with Mantic.

They're... ok. Not as good as GW plastics and certainly nowhere near as good as Perry. Probably on a par with some Warlord ones I've dealt with. A little soft detail here and there and probably not as much poseability and variation within the units as I might like but they are dirt cheap.

Secondly, Dr Frankenorc is proud to present my solution to the fact that I find boar riders very silly: the Centorc.

This is a very simply cut and shut conversion of an old 4th edition Warhammer Orc and elf with some greenstuff chainmail and a mane added. As a proof of concept, it looks fine - certainly enough to make a unit of 6 look possible as heavy cavalry.

Thirdly, I painted the playing pieces from Fury of Dracula 3rd Edition. These were very soft on detail so I relied on quite heavy washes and highlights.

I also picked something else up on ebay that I'm very excited about but there will be an update about that next week....

Oldhammer

Continuing my Dragon Rampant work, I've dug out some the oldest bits of the Lead Pile. After all, no greenskin horde is complete without some insane goblins.

Fabulous old Kev Adams sculpts; just marvellous fun to paint. 

I've also started to put together the crew for the warmachine:

And some proper old school hobgoblins. I want to vary the skin tones in my force to make them a little less uniform, so I'll mix and match the bright green I've worked up for the goblins, this uruk-flesh Hobgoblin colour and the dark green I developed for my Blood Bowl team. 

I'll get some proper photos when I can base them. Next up, I've got some Mantic orcs to try.