Skorne - Building the Mammoth

Skorne's Gargantuan hits the tables this month! For part 3 of my ongoing series on the Mammoth, I want to talk about building and painting this massive model.

Crack the WIP 3/5/12

So I got real busy last week and never got around to posting a hobby update. And then I went out of town this last weekend to see family up in PA (definitely a change in scenery from Central Texas...). So my hobby time has been somewhat limited lately. I have, however been working on getting my models ready for Adepticon. So far I'm right on track, and should be done in time. assuming I don't go and buy more models and add them in at the last minute. Not that I would ever do that..

Wait. He can charge how far?

so let's take a look at what I've been working on lately:

My Battlefoam Experience

my new bag, complete with journeyman league patches

I finally did it. I finally broke down and bought myself a brand new Battlefoam bag. There are a few guys in our gaming club who say all kinds of nice things about Battlefoam, but I never decided that I needed one. Part of me felt like they were saying good things about Battlefoam because they had to (the guys in our local gaming club happen to run Bell Of Lost Souls. Sponsored by Battlefoam. And Wargamescon. also sponsored by battlefoam). But soon, almost every "serious" player in the club was toting these things around and talking about how much they loved them.

Well, about 6 months ago or so, I finally got my wife into wargaming (hmm. maybe I should do an article about that sometime... maybe after Adepticon). She now has a decently sized Circle Orboros army. for a while, she just carried her stuff in a single foam sheet from my Sabol bag (rather, one sheet from my excessively large collection of foam sheets that go in my standard-sized army transport). then she needed a second sheet, and several Space wolf rhinos got displaced from their foam. when we started making 50 point lists for her army, it was clear she would need a better way of moving her models.

Turns out, she was more than happy to take my Sabol Army Transport if it meant she would have a good way of transporting her stuff (especially when we fly to Chicago in April!). When I finally sold my old Xbox, I ran out of reasons not to buy myself a new bag. Now, about a month later, I just received my Battlefoam GO pack in the mail. So here are my first thoughts on this new bag.

Crack the WIP 2/20 - Archidon!

Big hobby update this week! Adepticon is in 2 months, and that has given me a fresh surge of motivation to paint.

First model to get finished was the Archidon! This is very rare for me, not only did I get a model on release day, but I built and painted it before playing a single game with it. normally my models kind of sit around in line waiting to be painted. I don't know if other people do this, but a lot of times I paint a model that "deserves" to be painted. but this model looked so cool and got such a unanimous positive response in the online Skorne community that I couldn't resist painting him up.

Here are a few pictures:

painted archidon itching for battle

Crack the WIP 2/13/12

I finally got some more work done this week on the Hobby side of the game. I'll need tor amp it up a bit if I'm going to have everything painted in time for Adepticon... I can't believe how soon that is coming up.

anyways, this week I finished up my Extoller Soulward and built a few new models. not a very inspired week for gaming, but it's something.

The Harlequins: Death Jesters

The Death Jester is one of the more unique members of a harlequin troupe. In my opinion, they are also the coolest models in the range. I've always loved the death jesters, even just looking at pictures of ancient harlequin armies from back in the day. No harlequin army was complete without at least a few of these guys.

It makes me a little sad that no one uses them anymore. Not that I blame you all. taking a spare shuriken cannon isn't that impressive, and paying points for it in a dedicated close combat unit is just stupid. so now one of the coolest eldar models made by GW never even saw the tabletop.

So when making a new harlequin army, I knew death jesters had to go in! In this article, we'll take a look at the Death Jester. we'll look at the fluff, the models, and the rules for the death jester.

The Harlequins: A Harlequin Troupe

Harlequins generally travel and live together in groups known as harlequin masques. these masques are very similar to our current-day gypsy camps, where member live and work together as they travel from place to place performing their arts. Harlequins form these tight-knit troupes and travel freely between Eldar communities to perform their ritual dances.

On the battlefield, a harlequin Troupe refers to the basic fighting unit, which consists of a harlequin avatar and his/her entourage. A Troupe is often accompanied by various support elements, such as scouts, heavy weapons teams, etc. All of these support elements and Troupes are part of the Masque and always work together during performances and day-to-day life, but they are not always involved in battles. a single Troupe of harlequins is often more than enough to handle an entire enemy force.




In this article, we will be looking at the Troupe as a battlefield unit. We will examine the roles of the Troupers on the field and in their art, as well as looking at the models used to represent this cornerstone of a Harlequin force.

Hobby - Basing My Army, Part 2

in my first hobby article , I talked about making a decision to use resin lava bases for my Harlequin army. As I started moving my models from their plastic bases to the new resin bases, I realized it was going to be a lot more complicated than I had originally intended. You see, resin doesn't bond with plastic glue like your standard GW bases, and even superglue has a lot of trouble getting a good bond with the stuff. superglue works ok for steady models (though even the one steady model I used superglue on fell off without much force...), but for leaping harlequin models (especially the metal ones) superglue didn't even come close to being an ideal solution.

After discovering that, I made my first attempt at drilling and pinning models. I know a lot of people pin and drill every metal model they use, but I have never given it a try. If you already pin your stuff regularly, this article probably isn't for you. This is more for people like me who had never tried to pin my models and couldn't find a good guide to working with pins and resin. If that interests you, read on!

Warning: this tutorial is fairly pic-heavy...

Hobby - Basing My Army, Part 1

I don't know about you, but I hate basing models. I really do. Some guys seem to be able to flock and base models perfectly for very little effort, displaying their dudemens on amazing snow-covered bases or some other bases that make the whole army look a cut above the rest. it's always disappointing to see a wonderfully crafted and painted army sitting on white-primed bases. they just look so... unfinished.

I have attempted flocking my bases in the past, but I have never been happy with the results. even following some great tutorials online, my guys don't end up looking anything like those awesome bases that our local guys show up with. granted, the "local group" I'm talking about here is the BOLS crew... But that's beside the point.

The point is, while going through the trouble of making a new Harlequin army, I decided that this time I wanted an army that looked great from head to toe. that along with all of the converting, green-stuffing, and fluff writing I was going to do, I needed to actually have some good bases to finish out my hobby project army. It isn't going to be hyper-competitive, so it darn well better be good-looking while getting destroyed by a bare-plastic IG gunline...


with that in mind, I decided to go a new route with my bases this time. Read on for more

Do your bases look like this?