Another man's chaos in action!

On Saturday, Greg the Hoodling and I indulged in a mighty battle between my Khrone/Nurgle alliance and the Benitez hordes under Greg's leadership.

This is what 9000 points of chaos looks like all on one small table. The Battle of the Gates of Kislev will involve three times as much...

The full might of the Slug Knights come face to face with Disco Fever!

It's nice to see all the things I painted for Ben in action. It's also nice to see all my stuff in action. It's slightly startling to realise that apart from the board itself, the hills and trees and the movement trays (courtesy of Greg), everything on the table was made by me...

The battle report is over on the Hoodling's Hole. Check it out!

Warhammer Cookbook: Vampires

Well, it's about that time of the month again, time to dig into the Warhammer Cookbook once again!

Black Library audio books know no subtlety.

I don't usually post non-terrain or non-modeling material on this blog, but I've just encountered possibly the most magnificently cheesy thing I have ever listened to in all my years of dedicated audio-book and radio drama fanaticism.

My brother and his wife gave me 'Garro: Oath of Moment' on CD for christmas. Since I have been working my way steadily through all twenty discs of Peter F. Hamilton's 'The Dreaming Void' ever since christmas, I've only just listened to it. It's read by the same man (Toby Langworth), and it's 70 minutes of enormous ham.

Mr. Langworth is an excellent narrator - The Dreaming Void has a cast of thousands, and he managed to give every one a different voice, while injecting just the right mood into his voice for the demands of the narrative. However, his acting notes for Garro seem to have read 'What Would Brian Blessed Do?'. The whole thing is read with a sort of magnificent hammy over-dramatic fervour which turns a story of mighty warriors doing great deeds into sheer hilarity.

Then there's BL's decision to add music and sound effects lifted from Dawn of War (including dying screams when marines are slain!) This just ups the ham factor until we reach Ham Factor Overload.

This is probably the most entertaining audio book I've listened to all year just out of the wonderfully ham-fisted so-bad-it's-good way it's read. I'm not sure that BL are in on the joke; but Toby Langworth obviously is - we're talking about a very experienced radio actor and audio book narrator here.

I award Garro: Oath of Moment 4 out of 5 legs of ham (because it starts to tone down later on!)

Ishoo Forty-Sven Bee: Pretty Pictures of Trenches or Earthworks

As promised, here are some pics of the rest of the trench/earthworks set we built.

Well, I guess that means next ishoo is Kislev watchtowers! See you then!

Ishoo Forty-Sven: Trenches or Earthworks

Defensive trenches are one of the staples of military strategy, so it's surprising they don't appear more often on Wargames tables. One of the perennial problems is, of course, that you can't go below ground level unless you are doing a fully modelled up table or modular terrain tile set. Fortunately, you can make something very similar to the trench without having to cut into the ground: earthworks. They can be used either to represent trenches without digging into the table (never popular with wives or mothers!) or as their own special sort of obstacle. Best of all, they are startlingly easy to build! Take it away, Grot!

And there you have it! Nice, quick and simple defenses! Of course, if you are making a modular tile set you can use polystyrene tiles and cut into them for the trenches, then line them with duckboards etc. using the same techniques seen here.

Tomorrow (when the paint is dry!) we'll post pics of some other things you can do with earthworks to build up a full set of fortifications!

Painting another man's army: Delivery Day.

Yesterday I delivered the remaining parts of the Benite Hordes (Ben having already taken delivery of the Tzeentch warrior and Knight units, most of the Slaanesh warrior unit and the Dragon ogres) and as a result, I now posses an entire Skaven army...

Here, in all it's infernal majesty, is the Benite Horde minus the bits Ben already has (because he forgot to bring them, damn him!)

Slaanesh Chosen

Slaanesh Knights

The Khorne Unit of Antiquity.

Undivided Chosen

The part of the Slaanesh Warriors Ben didn't have yet

Ogres

Tzeentch Warshrine (not completely finished - the base still needs work)

Disco Fever, Spawn and the two last members of the Tzeentch Warriors

A number of sorcerous men and their familiars.

20,000 Hits

Sometime on Friday TFH received it's 20,000th hit!

It took until september last year to reach 10,000, but only about four months to clock up the next 10,000!

Thanks to everyone who has visited!

The Warhammer Cook Book: Maggot Medley

Slightly late (forgot to publish it yesterday!) here's the next instalment of the Warhammer Cook Book.

Ishoo Forty-Six Bee: More Kislev Peasant Buildings

I promised more photos of more Kislev buildings, and here they are (posed atop a sheet of polystyrene for that authentic white look!)

The barn was made using the standard Kislev Khottage method, but a different design. The pig sty is pure balsa, since you can see into it. The pig is from a Tamiya 1/35 farm animal set.

This fancier house has walls made from sheets of balsa with the planks marked in with a pencil - this is much faster and gives a more regular and less weathered appearance worthy of the dwelling of a prominent citizen (the mayor or a merchant I imagine) The stone foundations are made from foamcore with the top layer of card removed, just like the chimneys.