Into The ToMB - Month 1 Post 1, or Building A Fire

OK, so Month 1 of ToMB kicked off on 17th February. The Malifaux blogosphere is now full of people talking about their new Masters, from Tara to Collodi to Hamelin and back again.

I chose Sonnia. Really I picked her because I loved the box art. Because I wanted one of the new plastic crews, I was limited to Wave 1 Masters anyway, and the artwork on her box spoke to me more than the others.

Playstyle never really entered the equation, and having never played before, I only had the model stats from the M2e rulebook to go from anyway. In essence, it would appear that her crew sets things on fire so that Sonnia can blast them to bits in a fiery conflagration.

In Sonnia's The Torch and the Blade box, you get Sonnia, her henchman Samael Hopkins, her totem Purifying Flame and three Witchling Stalker minions, along with the appropriate M2e stat and upgrade cards and 30mm bases.

One thing to note if you're used to assembling Games Workshop's plastic kits: Malifaux plastics are really fiddly. And I mean really fiddly! Sonnia's face is a separate piece from her head and Samael has several incredibly small pieces, some of which are really difficult to see how to attach, even following Wyrd's online instructions. 

And Purifying Flame is so fragile, any impact is going to snap his arms off, resulting in seriously difficult and messy repairs.

The other thing I'm not used to is 30mm round lipped bases. With GW models, you can assemble them on their flat 25mm bases and texture and decorate the bases afterwards. With Malifaux bases (and I assume Warmachine/Hordes) that's a no go; you need to build the base first so you can put the model on top.

This led to me trying something I'd never done before: sculpting base detailing out of Green Stuff! All I did was to mix up a small amount of GW Green Stuff and press it into the recess of the base. After some clean up with a sculpting tool, this left a neat green circle in the recess. Then, using plenty of water, I used a hobby knife to sculpt some rectangular cobblestone shapes. I think they look pretty good:

I then had to decide on a colour scheme. For simplicity's sake, and because the box art was the main reason I picked the crew, I decided to paint them as close to the artwork as possible. I use GW paints for all my painting (I don't really understand the hate some people have for them, but then I've never used anything else) so when I'm done I'll list the paints I used.

Here's a parting shot with what I've done so far:

Next time I should have more painting done, and I'll talk about getting the crew on the table and blowing stuff up!

See you through the Breach!

The Scribe

New Year, New Blog

Hi, and welcome to Scribes of Terra!

This is a blog about Warhammer 40,000. I've been buying Games Workshop games, models and books since 1996.

So why start a blog in 2014 when there are so many others about 40k or Warhammer Fantasy or whatever? Let me do a bit of explaining. Back in October 2012's White Dwarf - the first of the new look issues - Jervis Johnson had a piece about army list restrictions and why they don't crop up in army lists any more.

They don't make 'em like they used to...

The thing that stuck out though was this statement:

'Let's face it, when all is said and done, ours is primarily a collecting hobby. Of course, we paint the Citadel miniatures we've collected and play games with them, but these are things we do with our collection; the act of collecting the miniatures come first.'

Now, I could get into (as many others have) the same old lambasting of GW for just trying to get you to buy more models, and this is undoubtedly what the article is really about. 'Army list restrictions stop us from selling you more of our new kits', in essence.

But what really is interesting to me about this quote, since I know GW are a miniatures company trying to sell miniatures, not a game company, was what it said about me as a hobbyist. This year will mark a full 18 years since my first GW product, the big boxed game of 3rd Edition 40k. Since then, I've bought:

For WHFB:

• 5th Edition boxed game (Bretonnians vs. Lizardmen)
• 6th Edition rulebook
• 7th Edition Battle For Skull Pass

For 40k:

• 4th Edition rulebook
• 6th Edition Dark Vengeance

TOO MUCH STUFF!

Add on top of those several codexes and army books, any number of plastic, metal and resin kits for both systems, plus glue, paint, etc etc and I've obviously spent a sum I'd rather not think about on GW stuff! So, 'You must have played lots of games then?' I hear you ask. No, sorry, I've NEVER actually played a proper game of WHFB or 40k, mainly because none of my close friends have any interest in the hobby at all.

'OK, but at least you must have a few large painted armies then?' No, wrong again! I've got a few painted models, but many more unpainted ones. And that's my point. In 18 years, the only force of any size I've actually painted to completion is a Tyranid battleforce. And even that I've only just finished after purchasing it when the plastic Carnifex kit was released. That's 10 years ago, folks!

Good grief, a fully painted model! Surely not?

So, I have conformed exactly to Mr. Johnson's (so by extension, GW's as well) view of the hobby: collect, collect, collect (Or: buy, buy, buy!). I've not done enough of the things I could DO with my collection.

Well, that's about to change! I recently started listening to The Independent Characters' podcast, and got inspired to actually start trying to play some games. I've entered their Hobby Progress Challenge to help me actually complete a hobby project.

I'm planning to build and paint a 2000 point Nurgle themed Chaos Space Marine army for 40k, and this blog (I hope!) will help me to do that by sharing my progress with other people. Then I might even be able to play a few - gasp! - games. Look for work-in-progress pictures and commentary primarily, but watch out for other hobby insights too.

So, I hope you find my musings and hobby tribulations interesting, and if you haven't already, go listen to the ICs podcast and sign up for the Challenge too. Well worth checking them out!

Cheers

Nick