The Fall Of Praetoria: by Warhammer 40K Campaigns

Attention citizen soldiers of glorious Praetoria.

Praetoria stands at Her hour of need.

The call has gone out across the galaxy, to our regiments, our neighbours, our allies and the mighty warriors of the Holy Emperor. Our appeals will not go unheard.

Now we must ready ourselves for the ultimate fight . Lest Praetoria be lost… Praetoria fall… Praetoria be no more.

Now that I have set the mood... whilst randomly surfing the net I came across some brilliant new Praetorian art work. At first I thought it was fan work posted on deviant art. As I found more I thought it must be from Fantasy Flight games, meaning Praetorians would appear in their RPG – an awesome prospect. Then I found the source site and I read the words ‘The Fall Of Praetoria’.

Militarum Equester - A play through of the new supplement!

For those that have not been following this, I have been working on miniatures and rules for a Rough Rider Army for some time now -The Macharian Thunder Guard! Today was the proud day when I finally got them onto the table and trialled my unofficial supplement codex rules with fellow gamer and blogger Liam (aka Frothing Muppet). Here is a few sneak preview shots of my home brewed codex.

Mounted Storm Troopers - 1st Carabiniers, Brimlock Dragoons

In the interest of actually posting on my blog regularly, here is the 'work in progress' up date on one squad of my Mounted Storm Troopers. 

Building a Necron Empire of Gold -Episode 3: Builders down tool and up weapons!

Well that was a long break between drinks!

The last few months have been full of too much work and not much hobby time. As a result the little rulers of the Necron Empire have been growing irritated. Under their orders, the builders put down their tool and picked up weapons to slay some explorers that ventured to close to the city complex.

Building a Necron Empire of Gold -Episode 2: Working From the Ground Up!

This project seems to be progressing faster then I can blog about it. For those that are just seeing this, it is best to start at the beginning. In Episode 1: The Concept I explained how this project came about and my thoughts on how I wanted it to end up. Keeping to the core concept is going to be really important to get the look and feel that I am aiming for. I think my brief summery of the project was an "Ancient Egyptian and Sumerian like city, paved in gold like a mythical South American lost city but laid out with Atlantis-like rings of water" or there about. I have started various structures (as you can see from the title photo) and here is where each of them are currently at.

Building a Necron Empire of Gold -Episode 1: The Concept

First off, sorry blogging world for not being around much. There has been some tough times with my father-in-law battling cancer right at a time when work/study has been totally crazy. Life gets like that sometimes. Thank you for my Lobster Awards, unfortunately I just wasn't in the head space to put a post together.

Since my last post I have found a few more followers bring me over the 100 mark which is something that I thought my little blog would never achieve. So cheers to the newcomers! I have had a lot of interest in my Taurox and Scion conversion, and rest assured they will be the focus of an upcoming post soon. Now that I have a free moment, I'd like to share a project (over a few posts) that is actually turning out to be pretty cool.

I have had this slow burn project quietly progressing on the sidelines of my other modelling for some time now. It has moved forward so sporadically that I never felt the need to shed the spot light on it for a blog post. This has resulted in having what is now a relatively big project that hasn't been blogged about! So in typical Ackland style, hold on to your hats, this is going to be quite a ride.

Teuton Scions and Taurox WIP

After starting my Taurox conversion yesterday (found here in Part 1 and Part 2), today I pulled out the Scion kit. Since I first saw them I have been dying to put Curious Construct Pickelhaube heads on them.  In my mind the baroque armour was crying out for a bit of 18th century Prussia! 

Taurox Conversion: Lowering ya ride, part 2

This is a pictorial log of my attempt to lower a Taurox and in doing so improve the overall look of the model (if that is possible). If you haven't checked out Part One,  please do so here.

As a refresher, the dodgy photo-shopped image on the left is my target and the original is on the right.   

Taurox Conversion: Lowering ya ride, part 1

Knowing that new Guard goodies were on their way I started putting a fund together so I could join in on the Guard loving. Selling a Tau codex and Warhammer Fantasy rulebook ensured that I would have some new toys to play with on release day. 

This morning the new Scions and Taurox hit the stores. Our local GW man, Dion at Warradale, had told me that he only got three Taurox kits in and many people were after are ALL of them. My response was a sarcastic dig at GW as usual. "Three at your store? I was expecting GW to send out a total of three to all of Australia - they must be getting generous these days!"
I set my alarm and got down there at 0800 to make sure I didn't miss out. Being first in line, I managed to grab a Taurox, Scion box and I also pre-ordered the new Guard codex for next week.

On to the Taurox! 

When I first saw the Taurox I thought it was a little 'aesthetically challenged'. Since then it has grown on me but there is still something odd about its proportions. I'd like to get one into my workshop and lower it!

The Confrontation of Tartarus Tor: A farewell to 5th ed Imperial Guard

With the new Guard codex on the horizon, it was with much glee that I managed to squeeze in one final battle with the rule set that has been my 40k life blood for the last 5 years (since May 2009!!).  At the beginning of March I dispatch an invite to a small coterie of 40k heroes for a two on two, 4000 point a side battle at my place.  This party of heroes comprised of my regular opponent James and his Space Marines, fellow blogger Liam (Muppet) with his Guard and Ultramarines, Dale joined by his Space Wolfs, and me (Ray aka Col. Ackland, aka The Beard) leading my Guard. Seeing that James and I had played against eachother many times I teamed up with him for this one.

For Sale: Praetorian Guard Limited Edition Box Set

Celebrating 50,000 Hits

Evening Gents. I'm just kicking back with a cool drink on a sweltering 43 degree day looking over the crazy number of visitors that have stopped by my little blog this week.

Over the last two and a half years my hit counter has slowly risen in small increments. I try to blog regularly but usually one post a month is all that eventuates from my sporadic hobby time. As a result, this is only the 67 post on my little blog while other blogs of the same age are at well over 100 posts. Never the less, I noticed last week that I was only a couple of thousand hits from the 50k mark and I thought to myself "That will be a nice milestone to hit in 2 or 3 months time". I'm surprised to say however, I completely underestimated how many people would be interesting in checking out the cavalry! In a week my Rough Rider Army post has clocked over 4500 views which is about 10 times more then I expected it to be seen in a month. The result is that I have absolutely smashed past the 50,000 hit mark by several thousand.

An Army of Rough Riders! - WIP Post

OK, a lot of people have asked to see them so here they are!

Ceremonial Honour Guard WIP - Part 2

Modelling Goals for the Year - 14 Projects for 2014

It is possibly a bit of wishful thinking but I never work on just one project at a time so I need a spattering of things on the go. You may notice that I have been purposefully vague with the exact number of models on the list. It should make it a bit easier to actually hit each goal.

On the work bench: A Ceremonial Honour Guard

Life in the Honour Guard: Spend weeks drilling, polishing, yelling, and parading just faint and look like a noob!

In Search of The Ultimate Risk Set

Preface

This post has been a long time coming. I have wanted to broaden my blogging topics for a long time but just never got around to it... until now!! In part this was inspired from seeing Odie's new blog Full Color Gamer, which is dedicated to painting board game pieces. I have also really enjoyed seeing other peoples side projects too. Like Headologist's Alternative History Game "1919", Colonel Scipio's Trench Raider Rules, Admiral Drax's Flames of War stuff, Mordian7th’s MERCS as well as everybody else's cool interesting stuff that isn't 40K. So here go's, you might wanna grab a beer before starting this one... lots to tell! 

Curious Constructs - The Man Behind It All

This one is just a heads up.

Check out an interview with Rob Angell, the creator of Curious Constructs, on Cheerful Meerkat’s Wargmaing site.

If you love Rob’s stuff, it is well worth the read.

DIY Hobby Desk

-AKA Colonel Ackland's Sanctuary

'The Discussion'
For many of us, Growing Up has meant that we have had to face discussions with our partners about having models and a hobby space in the house. It's one of those things that isn't really about winning or losing but is about striking the right balance so that 'life' works. 

My New Toy

A quick non hobby related post (and why my blog has been quiet lately)...

I have my own little 'count as' Titan just in time for the new apocalypse release!