Last year I entered Armies on Parade with my Heresy Ultramarines, the first time I had entered since I frequented the Ipswich Games Workshop as a teenager.

This year I am torn on what to do, so I enter in an existing army, which would be my Word Bearers and use the Mastodon as a centre piece model, or do I enter an army I am currently working on, be that my Khorne army for Age of Sigmar, or my Tau for 40k?

It’s been a while since I have myself a deadline for a project so this could help motivate me, and I have been kind of suffering from a touch of ADHD when it comes to projects of late, so a new army could help focus me.

I just don’t know, i think what I am going to do is paint up a Tau and a Khorne troop choice and see how painting them goes and if it is at all feasible to paint a list up in the timeframe.

What I am Modelling

I finished off the Space Wolves characters, it was nice to return to the Space Wolves after so long.

Ragnar Blackmane is quite a nice model, very old school and had lots of interesting features on him.

I had considered putting him on a 40mm base originally, just like Krom Dragongaze, my friend Scott has done that same thing, and I was tempted, but I think in the end he suited a 32mm base just like other Power Armoured characters.

Njal Stormcaller was also a fun little model to do, again very old school and full of character, ok the pose is a bit pants, but it’s a model of its time. The backpack provided was a standard MKVII one, so I ended up getting the Space Wolf Upgrade Frame, specifically for the backpack so I could put it on him, but I ended up swapping that backpack with the one from Ragnar.

Like Ragnar, Njal was also mounted on a 32mm base, and they both look much better for it, I hate it when models overhang the base in the way Ragnar and Njal do on 25mm bases.

You can see from both of these models, features that appear on more modern day Space Wolves models, and a bit of the crazy heavy metal influences from 30 years ago.

Both of these models were metal, a material I am never overly fond of working with, but they do feel very substantial when you hold them.

Geigor Fell-Hand was a more recent model, the most recent character for the Space Wolves, although one confined to the Heresy, in 40k I will be using him as either a Wolf Lord, or Wolf Guard Battle Leader.

He is my first dedicated 30k model for my Space Wolves and I am rather happy with him. I decided to keep the 40k colour scheme because it means I can pinch equipment from my 40k army to use in 30k, specifically my Drop Pods.

Also when I spoke to Neil Roberts a few years ago at Warhammer Fest, he said that he draws the Space Wolves wearing a dirty version of the blue armour and assumed that 40k Wolves were simply better at keeping their armour clean, I know it’s not true now, but I like that and that is the excuse I am using. Plus I really like baby blue in Wolves!

I also decided to solve the issue of my photos, I replaced the lightbulbs I have been using for lighting, which were just bulbs I got from the Co-Op, with daylight bulbs from Wilkinsons, and this is the difference between the photos now, so going forward, the pictures of my models should look much better.

I then returned to a project I abandoned a while ago, my Tau. I built a 1000 point list for 7th Edition using the formations from the Start Collecting Box and Burning Dawn, adding in a Devilfish. I then built the models, and began painting the Crisis Suits, but put them aside for something else after I got the main colour of the armour done.

The list still works and is roughly 1000 points in 8th Edition, and I decided to give myself a change from Power Armour and finish off the Crisis Suits. I quickly figured that I should have done them slightly differently, doing the black bits of the armour first than the ochre parts, but I followed the Games Workshop painting guide, which I now regret doing.

I have the Crisis Suits now finished and I am currently working on their drones, which in this case happens to be six Marker Drones, the Shas’vre is equipped with a Drone Controller so figured giving that the unit would benefit best from Marker Drones to try and get those Markerlights hit for other units to use.

I did a little bit of building, I put together a Terminator Captain I got a while back, five more Breachers for my Ultramarines, a Primaris Birthday Captain, Darkstrider and a Barracuda. My box of stuff that needs undercoating is growing, think that’s something I will do once I pick up the Inceptors I bought this week.

What I am Reading

Not much, again the pain has been very very distracting, but I am going to make an active effort to finish The Crimson King.

What I am Playing

Another week in which apart from games on my phone, I haven’t played anything which has made me really sad.

What I am Backing

Not backing anything this week, there are a few projects that interest me, but I am not actively backing them at the moment, but I have asked Kickstarter to remind me about them.

What I am Cooking

This week I started off by making some Kansas City BBQ sauce, it’s a beautiful recipe with a spice tang that hits you a little after you eat it. It’s a sweet treacle and tomato based sauce and I love it an awful lot.

I got the recipe from a chap who was manning the bid table for the Kansas City WorldCon bid at LonCon3, in exchange for my vote. Was well worth it as the sauce is delicious and works really well with so much stuff.

I made a big batch of it, and left it a little less thick than usual, I wanted it to be good for pouring. I have tended to make it quite thick, but this has proved problematic when trying to get it out of the jar, so keeping it a bit more runny will be easier all round.

The reason I made it was specifically so that I could make some Pulled Pork and Pit Beans, and for the Pulled Pork I decided to do it a bit differently to try and improve it. In the past I have just slow cooked it in stock, but this time I decided to slow cook it with onions and garlic in Newcastle Brown Ale, and I left that for 8 hours to cook away.

I then took it out and poured away the brown ale and onions, and pulled the pork apart using some forks. I then put the pork back in the slow cooker and covered it with the BBQ sauce and added a tablespoon of Liquid Smoke.

At this point Megan was very pessimistic about it, she hates things that taste too smokey and I hoped that only a small amount of liquid smoke wouldn’t put her off.

Meanwhile I prepared the side dish, some BBQ Pit Beans, for which I had roasted a bit of brisket earlier on the week. In the beans there was a red pepper, onion garlic, Kansas City BBQ Rub, smoked paprika, treacle, brown sugar, four tins of beans, some of my BBQ sauce and some of the crispiest bacon I have ever cooked.

So that ended up in the over for 90 minutes at a low temperature after having simmered for 20 minutes. Megan was very worried that they would be too spicy, but she actually liked them, but she thinks that next time they are made as an accompaniment to Pulled Pork which is already a bit spicy, I should tone down the spice a bit.

After two hours the pork was done and Megan tried it, and hated it, the smokey flavour was just too much for her, so she had the emergency pizza we keep in for when I make food she won’t eat.

But me and Lindsay loved it, the smokey flavour really added something to it in my opinion. We served it up with Scotch Rolls and Coleslaw, and it was divine.

Lindsay gave it overall a 8.5 out of 10, she wanted the spice in the Pit Beans reduced, Megan gave the Pit Beans an 8 and expressed the same sentiment as Lindsay regarding the spice.

Next week I am going to try making Dirty Rice, a Cajun dish, which is one reason for me making the Cajun Spice Mix last week.

What I am Spending

The first thing I bought was a pair of special bear claw forks for pulling meat. Pulled Pork is kind of a signature dish for me, and being in so much pain I struggle to pull the meat, so I got the forks specifically to make it easier on me.

Not having physical books has been a bit of an issue for me lately, I have meet authors that I love and missed out on them signing stuff for me, so I decided to pick up an autograph book to try and solve that problem.

I made a Forgeworld purchase, bought myself some Breachers to fill out the second squad, as well as a Command Upgrade Set and some Ultramarine MKIII Shoulder Pads for them, and I also bought a Barracuda for my Tau as well.

And to help out with the Tau, I bought Darkstrider for them as well, got that delivered to the Metrocentre store, where fantastically, I was able to pick up the 9 Birthday Primaris Captains that I bought for the guys last week, just gotta get those in the post now.

And to round out a week of buying stuff I finally got my Inceptors from Battle Bunker for my Blood Ravens to round out the 2000pt list of Primaris Marines.

  • Mood: Downbeat (Lindsay has been ill)
  • Caffeinated Beverages Consumed: 1
  • In My Ears: All My Life – The Foo Fighters
  • Game Last Played: Carcassonne on iOS
  • Book Last Read: The Crimson King by Graham McNeil
  • Movie/TV Show Last Viewed: Live at the Apollo
  • Current State of Projects: Armour on the Marker Drones at highlighting stage