Ackland Returns from Exile with Plans to Invade Europe: The Blood Lion Crusade

Hello Blogging world! I have pushed my way past the scattered piles of half written blog posts to finally hit the publish button on my blog again. As always I have enjoyed reading many of your posts but have not been as much of an active participant as in the past. I have missed that and so am finally back at it.




Whats been going on?
My last post was June last year. At that time my wife was a couple of months pregnant with our second baby. We always have complicated pregnancies and have lost a few in the past so from about July onward things started getting stressful. I still had some hobby time and even a few games in with my favourite gaming partner (Muppet); Sharpe fought of loads of Orks earning himself glory and a few fresh scars.

"Stand fast men, I can take him alone!"

Sharpe’s Duty - A 40k Narative Skirmish

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe 

Lieutenant Richard Sharpe of the 95th Praetorian Rifles, Imperial Guard, stood at attention in Major-General (Margrave) Chretzo Sigenandus’ command tent. The young lieutenant faced the old stern general seated at his desk, while Colonel Ackland stood casually off to the side interjecting from time to time with remarks that were more whimsical than of any strategical importance. Sharpe looked taken back on receiving his mission. “He specially requested me?” uttered Sharpe with genuine surprise. Ackland chuckled mostly to himself while twisting the end of his moustache “Yes my dear boy, Major Sutherland - you know, tall grumpy chap, big scar down the right cheek. He requested you lead the escort.”
“Aye sir, I know em” replied Sharpe, “It was me that gave em the scar!”
“Arrr yes” continued Ackland looking off thoughtfully, “And a dammed ungentlemanly blow too I must say. Well Sharpy, all I can say is if I were cut off 30 miles behind the line surrounded by angry Green Skins I’d want the dirtiest fighter in this man’s army to come rescue me too, ha ha!”

Major-General Sigenandus

The General shifted in his chair and grumbled, giving off the feeling that he wished he was somewhere else. “Hmmm errr, well Sharpe, you have your orders, if there are no questions you are dismissed.”
“Aye sir” the young Lieutenant saluted and about faced to leave when the general added “Oh and Sharpe remember I need the intelligence that Major Sutherland has so do not go starting any foolhardy duels on the trip back. Sutherland’s from the ‘old school’ and cannot be expected to mind his manners with a commoner raised from the ranks, so make sure you mind yours.” Sharpe stopped but did not turn to face the old general. “Don’t worry Sir,” he replied gruffly, “I’ll do my duty.” 

Lieutenant Sharpe exited the tent with such disquietude that he cannoned straight into a ‘tin belly’ cavalry officer who was about to enter. The large Brimlock heavy dragoon was an immovable object and Sharpe staggered clumsily to the side. “Wow, steady there… arr, Sharpe isn’t it?” The Brimlock officer queried. “Who’s asking” Sharpe replied finding his feet. The officer persisted, “I wonder if I might I give you some advice - lieutenant to lieutenant?” Before Sharpe could reply the officer continued shrewdly “Soap. By the Emperor’s holly name you stink horribly man - it is quite ungentlemanly.” Sharpe gave a half grin “Nar, don’t use it. The Green Skins can smell a rosy officer a mile off, me however; I have ta tap em on the shoulder before they know I’m coming. I’ll sleep in the dirt and stay alive.” The Brimlock officer looked appalled and then laughed shaking his cuirassier breastplate “I’d rather be dead, ho ho!” With that, the Brimlock officer past Sharpe and entered he command tent. “Be careful what you wish for tin man” Sharpe muttered to himself as he went to find his men.  Sharpe knew he had many failings as an officer and a gentleman, but he was good at leading his men and killing Orks and that was all his duty ever required.

Terrain Building: Finishing the Rock Formations (and a 40k Sharpe)

I carved up a few more rock formations and set to work painting them. For those just joining this adventure, here are my previous posts on my foam carving and terrain building (post 1, post 2 and post 3).

I'll let the picture tell the story.

Terrain Building: A mixed bag update - Wind Generator, Rock Formations and Sandbag Defences

I really love having lots of things on the go at the same time. It is not great for finishing things but I do get there eventually. I like to keep my hobby as 'me time' so I place no constants on what I work on during an evening or weekend off. I run with enthusiasm rather than a disciplined plan and that keeps me coming back to do more. It does make blogging hard because I tend to wait until I have done enough on something to blog about it instead of blogging about one weekends worth on something that I won't get back to for a few weeks. With that in mind here is a selection of things that I have been playing with recently.

First up, my wind generator from ‘The Last Stand at Glazer’s Creek’ that I first posted on last December has moved forward a bit. Here is shot of where it was when I last posted on it and where it is now .

Terrain Building: Carving Rock Pillars with a Hot Foam Cutter

I have been on a terrain building bout recently working on my old school wind generator and a small forest of trees. I have always wanted to make some big rock pillars and cliff faces for my terrain set as well. Thus, it was finally time to get a hot foam cutter and give carving foam a go!

Terrain Building: My Quest for Better Wargaming Trees

From my younger days with Warhammer 40K I remember seeing many battles fought on what looked like wide grassy fields. I appreciate that Napoleonic and earlier real battles might have looked like this but it was not an environment that I saw much of where I was and so I struggled to connect with it.

Thus, a long term goal of mine has been to make terrain that I could connect to - such as environments that I was use to seeing in Australia. I have created all sorts of things over the years but now I am at a point that my hobby skills (and pockets) are at a place that I can probably have a better attempt at it then I ever have before.

Hobby space rework: The reset button has been pushed!

I have not posted here since last year but sometimes it is healthy to step away from things to come back re-invigorated. There has been some sporadic hobby time in there but nothing made it to the blog yet. With this on and off hobby time my desk became a bit of a dumping ground. Eventually it hit the critical level of messiness where it was simply too much effort to sit down and do anything there. Not only was it a cluttered mess but the desktop board 
had bowed badly because I hadn't put a support beam under it when I build it. I always planned to add it but never got around to it. 

Last night after a particularly hard week of work I looked at the sad state of my hobby space and decided it was time for a literal and metaphoric fresh start.

Easy Medusa Conversion

Here is another small project that happened between other things. I had two Earthshaker Platforms and I wanted one to be a Medusa Siege Gun. I had seen similar conversions on the net so I gave it a crack with some personal touches. I find it really useful seeing how other people attempt different conversions, so in that spirit here is a walk through of my conversion. 

Windmill from ‘The Last Stand at Glazer’s Creek’

White Dwarf 222, of June 1998, featured a battle report adaptation of the Battle of Rorke's Drift - best known from the film ‘Zulu!’ Naturally, this pitted a platoon of the then newly released Praetorian Imperial Guard against a group of savage Orks who came at the Imperial defenders in a number of waves. I always loved this battle report for the way it leant on an historical event without making it a straight out recreation in 40k. The exaggeration and satire blended with the Gorkamorka vogue captivated me and even now, 18 years later, I enjoy flicking through that battle report.

Kingdom Death: Monster - Unboxing and Magnetising

I have been off of the blog for a while but I had to throw up a quick post for this one! My copy of Kingdom Death: Monster arrived (finally) so I have been one happy man this weekend! First off, I know there are many people out there that are thinking of magnetising their survivor models. I gave it a go and with the right tools it isn't all that hard.

Leman Russ Demolisher Finished -Tank 211 'Bumblebee'-

Gents, this one is a double blog post, so be sure to checkout the work in progress post for this tank here. As always, comments are always welcome. Seeing that the Preatorians were 'never' on campaign in the Orpheus Sector (thanks to the Ordo Redactus), it would be wise to check your security clearance before viewing these archives. -Tally ho lads, Colonel Ackland.

Painting Up The Old Demolisher!

After handing up my PhD thesis (which I talked about in my last post) I gave writing a solid brake for a bit. This unintentionally spilled over to my blog too so I have gone a full month without a post. Now that I am back to writing at work I found the urge to write a post again. So what have I been up to? I finished a tank! I am splitting this one over two posts so if you would prefer to jump to the finished tank hop over to Part 2.

The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry

I am very good at planning and very good at finishing things, just not so good at joining those two concepts together. I inevitably end up doing way more than I planned, way better than I planned, way later than I planned. 

I was optimistically hoping to keep up weekly blog posts but I missed the last three. I do have some good news though. After what has now been six years I am proud to say that finally I handed up my PhD thesis. It was a monumental effort in the end so following its submission I took a week off, played with my 20 month old son, caught up on sleep and generally recovered from the thesis ordeal. 

With that all behind me I'm ready to get my hobby on again!

Taking Cover From One Hundred Thousand Hits!

My blog has clicked over to 100,000 hits! Thank you to everyone that has stopped by over the last four years especially to all the great bloggers that have left comments from time to time!

In the real world I am submitting my PhD thesis over the next two weeks as well as working. As a result, my days are split between 10 hours of shiftwork, 8-10 hours of thesis writing and 3-5 hours of sleep. Thus, there is no modelling happening at the moment. I do have my finished defence lines to show off though! Here is where I had left them in the last post.

Reinforcing the New Front!

"Your spirit is the true shield!"

This post is about reinforcing the new army imagery that I introduced last post. To do this I have started painting up a defence line for the new campaign front in the Orpheus Sector, as well as the literal 'front' of painting lions on the front of things. [Don’t worry I’ll stop my bad attempts at being clever now.] My current progress is slightly ahead of my blogging so unfortunately I did not incorporate some of the advice that I received in my last post. Never the less, I got there in the end! 

Contextualising My Praetorians (and a Big Gun Emplacement)

Well, it has been quite a break between solid painting posts. This blogging drought ends here! Starting this month I will attempt a feat that I have never achieved ever in my last 4 years of blogging... I will blog weekly painting posts. {gasp} I'm know right, a very dangerous deed! I don't know how long it will last but there will be no retreating! 

In this post I painted up my Earthshaker Cannon, but what this post is really about is the symbols and icons that I have added to my Praetorian force. Lately, I have been putting large emphases on making sure that my armies have a strong identity. For my golden Necrons this has been through the elaborate city terrain that represents their crown world. Praetorians by themselves have a strong theme but I wanted to introduce a few icons to the army to cement their character and identity across the force.

Brimlock Dragoons and Praetorian Infantry Progress

Time for another update on the 1st Carabiniers, Brimlock Dragoons.

The background and first progress post on these guys are both back here.

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.