Paint Zone Mortalis – Floors

I have been asked by a couple of people, how I painted my Zone Mortalis Floor Tiles, so I will tell you guys how I did it!

First off, this scheme is the result of lots of googlefu and searching Facebook/Twitter/Instagram for ideas.

None of this is my own original thought, but I didn’t make note of posts that inspired me, so if you see a likely candidate, let me know so I can credit them. There are a few people who contributed to this and I am kicking myself that I didn’t make a note of them!

Step 1

The first step is to prime the tile black, for this I have used Wilkos Satin Black spray.

Step 2

In this step I lightly spray the tile with a dark brown, in this case I have used Rust-Oleum Satin Espresso, but you could easily use something like Land Rover Russet Brown from Halfords.

I aimed for about 80% – 90% coverage of this.

Step 3

Next I take some Burnt Siena, I got this from Amazon, and tear up a bit of cheap sponge to apply it, but I use a piece of kitchen towel to take off as much of the paint as possible.

I then apply it rather heavily to the tile.

Step 4

Next I sponge on some Fire Dragon Bright, but much lighter this time.

Step 5

Now I take some Humbrol Maskol, but you could just as easily use Vallejo Liquid Mask, and I sponge this on to the tile quite randomly.

Step 6

Now we give a thin layer of Iron Warriors, I applied this with a cheap make up brush.

Step 7

You can skip ahead now if you don’t want to put any hazard markings on your board.

But I apply a couple of thin layers of Averland Sunset to where I want to put the hazard stripes.

Step 8

Then some masking tape is applied to protec the parts I want to remain yellow.

Step 9

Then a couple of thin layers of Abaddon Black is applied to the uncovered area.

Step 10

At this point I now remove the masking tape and begin to rub off the Maskol, be that with a singer, it my finger.

As it comes off it shows the rust effect underarm the Iron Warriors.

I also paint any details I want to be bronze, in this case I used Balthasar Gold.

Step 11

The final step is to mix Typhus Corrosion 1:1 with water and apply it to the tiles, leaving it to dry for a few seconds before dabbing it off with kitchen towel.


And this is the final stage in how I paint my Zone Mortalis Floor Tiles.

And that how I paint my Zone Mortalis floors, I think it looks ok myself.


June Resolutions Update

It’s the end of the month and we are 50% of the way through the year now so let’s see where I am in terms of my hobby resolutions.

The complete 1750 points of 40k stuff is going to be reassessed once 9th edition drops but based on what I have seen thus far, that might be getting upped to 2000 points.

And with the Generals Handbook landing next month I will also have to reassess the Stormcast Eternals list.

But this month I have a huge success and have completed the first resolution to 100%!!!

Paint 867 Models – 88%

I have now painted 773 models, so just over 100 off my target!!!

This month I painted a few more Space Wolves, a few Grey Hunters Pack Leaders, a Repulsor and an Iron Priest.

And I started my contribution to the podcasts show army, the Sons of Horus.

A big jump in the number is down to two Chainrasp Hordes that were 40 models strong each!

Finish Painting the Blood Ravens I Own on 1st January – 85% Complete

For the Blood Ravens I painted all five of my Chaplains, a 10 man Intercessor Squad, a Primaris and Firstborn Ancient, a squad of Aggressors and two Repulsors, although only one of those contributes to the resolution.

So right now I have 7 units left to do in order to fulfil this resolution.

Finish the Death Guard – 83.33% Complete

No progress made in these this month.

Complete 2000 Points of Stormcast Eternals – 67%

So last month I decided to make it a 2000 point list I have to paint, so I have formed a list consisting of stuff I have painted and stuff that’s on the painting queue, and here it is:-

+ Leader [580pts] +

Knight-Incantor [140pts]

Knight-Venator [120pts]

Lord-Aquilor [180pts]: General

Lord-Ordinator [140pts]: Astral Hammers

+ Artillery [220pts] +

Celestar Ballista [110pts]

Celestar Ballista [110pts]

+ Battleline [330pts] +

Vanguard-Hunters [110pts]: 5 Vanguard-Hunters [110pts], Astral Compass, Storm Sabre

Vanguard-Hunters [110pts]: 5 Vanguard-Hunters [110pts], Astral Compass, Shock Handaxe

Vanguard-Hunters [110pts]: 5 Vanguard-Hunters [110pts], Astral Compass, Storm Sabre

+ Other [830pts] +

Aetherwings [50pts]: 3 Aetherwings [50pts]

Evocators [220pts]: 5 Evocators [220pts], 5x Tempest Blade and Stormstave

Prosecutors [90pts]: 3 Prosecutors [90pts], Paired Celestial Hammers

Retributors [200pts]: 5 Retributors [200pts]

Sequitors [130pts]: 5 Sequitors [130pts], 2x Stormsmite Greatmace, Stormsmite Greatmace (Sequitor-Prime), Stormsmite Maul and Soulshield

Vanguard-Raptors with Hurricane Crossbows [140pts]: 3 Vanguard-Raptors with Hurricane Crossbows [140pts]

+ Malign Sorcery [40pts] +

Endless Spell: Celestian Vortex [40pts]

So far from this list I have completed the Knight Incantor, Knight-Venator, Lord Ordinator, Celestar Ballistas, one unit of Vanguard Hunters, the Prosecutors, Sequitors, Aetherwings and Vanguard Raptors, which is 1340 points.

So I started off the month by painting the Knight-Heraldor, Knight-Vexillor and Retributors which completes the original Age of Sigmar strater set, took me just under 5 years but we got there in the end.

I then got the Sequitors from Soul Ward painting and have left to do from that set just the Evocators and the Castigators.

Paint 1750 Points of T’au – 5.7%

Following similar logic to the Stormcast Eternals I plan to paint up a list for the T’au, but I need to figure out what I have first before I can do that.

In the meantime I got off the starting block with two Ethereals on Hover Drones.

Rebase the Blood Ravens – Completed

I started by rebasing the remaining Tactical Squad and the Captain, managing to cut my finger doing so, but I got those done.

Then later in the same week I rebased the last unit that needs doing, an Assault Squad.

And thus I complete the first of my resolutions, all my Blood Ravens which are playable are now on the modern day sized base.

I do have some other Blood Ravens stuff that needs stripping and repainting, but I plan to tackle those next year and fixing them up will probably be a resolution for 2021, and they will be rebased at that point.

Other Resolutions

  • Complete 1750 Points of Orks
  • Rebase the Orks
  • Paint Mortarion for Everchosen

Nowt has happened with these this month, but Mortarion is on my long term plan even though there probably won’t be an Everchosen this year and will hopefully be at least started next month.


So how what does my painting plan look like right now, well it looks a bit like this.

I will also be doing my 24 hours of painting challenge next month, and if you want to donate you can do so here.

  1. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  3. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  4. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  5. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  6. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad Members x 9 & Valkyries
  7. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  8. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  9. T’au Breacher Squad x 10 & Devilfish
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3

Not Doing My Best

I have been having a bad few days mentally, stuff in the world is really getting to me.

Feels like in all aspects of life, and the things I enjoy, stuff is going wrong.

I am barely painting, hardly reading and can’t even bring myself to pick up the TV remote.

I have spent most of the past few days staring at empty space.

What Am I Painting

I started off with a pair of Blood Ravens Repulsors, one that I got when it was first released, and the other from Warhammer 40,000 Conquest.

These are seriously lovely models, if a bit on the large side.

Then I hit up a horde of 40 Chainrasps which represents the last of the Chainrasp hordes I have for my Nighthaunt, and other than the five Dreadscythe Harridans I have, brings me bang up to date with the Nighthaunt.

These took a while to do, simply because it’s been very very hard to paint in the heat we have been having!

I am waiting for the other 5 Dreadscythe Harridans so I can paint them all together at once.

Whilst doing the Chainrasps I also did a few test pieces for my Zone Mortalis board too.

Started with a few pieces of the board it self.

Then did loads of experimentation to figure out the method I want to use for the tiles.

Before finally figuring it out this morning the bottom one is the way I am going.

I have now started on the T’au Pathfinders, Darkstrider and Devilfish.


So what does my painting queue look like right now:-

  1. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  3. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  4. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  5. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  6. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad & Valkyries
  7. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 3
  8. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10
  9. T’au Breacher Squad x 10 & Devilfish
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Mortar Teams x 3

What I Am Reading

I finished the audio book of Knights of Macragge by Nick Kyme and it was entertaining, but there were aspects of it that were less than great.

The sheer number of featured antagonist factions felt a bit much, perhaps it would have been better as two separate books, because whilst it was a good story, I didn’t get enough of either main part of it.

I am now listening to Devastation of Baal by Guy Haley.

What I Am Playing

Have been able to play anything.

What I Am Backing

Chai: High Tea has been funded, we look forward to eventually getting that, looks like a beautiful game.

I am also backing Project Infinite Hole, I know Lindsay and Megan are terrible at Paranoia as they just don’t get the whole being antagonistic towards each other, they are far too nice, but I love the game.

And BackerKits for Lords of Vegas and Car Wars were completed.

For Lords of Vegas we decided to add on the unified rule book and the charity promo card and for Car Wars I have added on two Miniatures Sets.

Currently my kickstarter situation is as follows:-

What I Am Cooking

I made General Tao’s chicken wings in the slow cooker again, worked a bit on the recipe to refine it, replacing ginger purée with ground ginger and adding garlic cloves instead of garlic powder and I think they taste a lot better.

We needed to keep the side simple and so we just used a mushroom stir fry pack from Tesco, cooked with some egg noodles and a Chinese sauce.

I also made a very bad breakfast of bagel, turkey bacon, mushrooms and omelette this morning for myself and Lindsay.

What I Am Spending

I sold a few things this week and got a nice tax rebate, and that allowed me to invest in Necromunda Dark Uprising, a game I have been after for ages.

This is going to be the start of my plastic Zone Mortalis board, and I already have pulled together a few things from Conquest to contribute towards it already.

Those being three Magnavent Walkways, a Haemotrope Reactor, some Galvanic Servohaulers, and a single Munitorium Armoured Container.

I also ordered a couple more Magnavent Walkways from Hachette which turned up Friday so now I have five of those now!

I also picked up a few pots of paint and some Necromunda dice from Games Workshop, the washes are specifically for the Zone Mortalis terrain, as is the Ryza Rust, the Leviadon Blue Contrast is for the armour of my Enforcers and I am out of Zandri Dust.

Sunday saw me grab a few bits and pieces to start painting the Zone Mortalis board, gonna try and really go to town on this one!

And I also saw that there were Zone Mortalis tiles in stock, so I ordered a set of them, to really get started on the board proper, plus a couple cans of Grey Seer, some Mournfang Brown, Apothecary White and Iron Warriors Air.


24 Hours of Painting

On the 18th January I am going to be painting for 24 hours to raise money for The Willow Foundation, it’s a charity I have a particular affinity for as they helped one of my best friends, Lee Dunford, when he was seriously ill.

They organise special days for seriously ill young people, a lot of charities do this kind of work for children, but very few for young adults, who often find themselves facing a lot of despair with few geared up to their needs.

The Willow Foundation is amazing and in a normal year, the amazing Leestock, organised by some old friends of mine raises a lot of money for them in Lees memory.

But obviously this year is different, but there are still young people facing serious disease who need the a Willow Foundation to do the work they need to to, and so I am aiming to try and raise a little but if money for them, I have set my target at just £150.

My plan is to paint for 24 hours solid from 10am on the 18th July to 10am on the 19th July. The project, as voted for by my friends is the Adepta Sororitas Sisters of Battle Army, which is 25 models to paint.

It’s going to be a challenge and I need to plan it out correctly, but I am set on doing this.

I am going to be arranging to be joined by friends and will be streaming it on YouTube and Twitch, so I need to get myself set up to be able to actually do it properly.

But the aim is to have the models built and primed for the start and then hit it as hard as possible, and get it done.

I have a little prize pool to give away, so if you do donate, then you may end up winning a little something.

You can donate here at this link, and I would be grateful for anything you can donate.

I will keep you guys updated on the plans, in the meantime, my fiends the Wildman brothers are doing something similar for another amazing charity, and you can find their Just Giving page here.


It’s taken me a long time to get anything done, the honest truth is that this week has been hard for me, a birthday of someone I lost fell in this week.

It’s weird, I have never felt a death so keenly as this one, everyone else who I lost in my life it’s been a case of it’s sad they are gone, but they went at a good time.

There is one other passing I do feel keenly, but that was kind of expected as they had been ill for a long time, this particular death was sudden and very unexpected.

We were when we were younger extremely close and I loved this person a great deal, I am devastated that we had drifted so far apart before they died.

What I Am Modelling

When browsing Amazon at 1am I ended up buying some clear decal paper, utterly accidentally and when they turned up I was quite surprised. Lindsay was less than impressed as our household Amazon account is hers.

So first off I printed myself some basic squad markings for the Blood Ravens.

Annoyingly the design isn’t scaled right and the symbols are too high when printed at their native size so gonna have to design my own sheet to replace this one.

I started the week by building the Space Wolves bits from Prophecy of the Wolf, so that was Ragnar Blackmane and the Infiltrators.

I also built my Valkyrie for the Millitarium Tempestus, a couple of Attack Bikes for Megan to paint, the Valkyries from Skies of Fire, a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Infantry for Niki, a squad of MKIV Tactical Marines for the Sons of Horus and something for my super secret project!

I then primed these along with the 40 Chainrasps so that my next dozen painting projects are all primed and sat in the “in tray” ready to pick up when it’s their turn to be painted.

The first models to hit the painting table were the Blood Ravens Aggressors and Firstborn Ancient for the simple reason of my wanting to try out the new decals.

It took me five days to paint these because of a lack of motivation, but I am pleased with the final outcome on them.

I also painted alongside these a set of Paired Vulcan Mega Bolter for my Warlord Titans in Adeptus Titanicus.

I then picked up a squad of Death Korps of Krieg Infantry for Niki and painted them.

He gave me a bunch more stuff last time I saw him and has since been 3D printing some more, so these will be featuring in my painting list a lot more going forward again.

I now have in the desk some Repulsors for my Blood Ravens.


So what does this leave my painting queue looking like now:-

  1. Blood Ravens Repulsor x 2
  2. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  3. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  4. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  5. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  6. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15 & Space Wolves Captain
  7. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad and Valkyries
  8. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3
  9. Stormcast Eternals Castigators x 5
  10. Sons of Horus Tactical Squad x 10

What Am I Reading

I finished First and Only and you know, it was pretty good, I have however put down The Founding and picked up Sons of the Selenar by Graham McNeil, which I got finished pretty quickly and really enjoyed.

What Am I Playing

I haven’t played anything this week other than a little bit of time playing Inquisitor Martyr on the Xbox One.

What Am I Backing

Chai: High Tea is still being backed and should fund very shortly.

The next Paranoia campaign launched, Project Infinite Hole, and you can bet your arse this will get backed!

What Am I Cooking

I made a beautiful pie for Sunday breakfast with Megan’s help. Inspired by the Sausage, Bean and Cheese Melt from Greggs, it was premade pasty, in a pie dish, and filled with some fried bacon lardons, two tins of beans and sausages and a generous helping of mozzarella.

Then baked in the oven at 180 degrees Celsius for 35 minutes. Next time Lindsay wants to serve it with a side of scrambled eggs.

What Am I Spending

My Element Games order with Aeronautica Imperials and Prophecy of the Wolf arrived which made me a very happy boy. Also in there was a Regiment Brush and a Drybrush from The Army Painter.

And as mentioned earlier, I did buy some decal paper accidentally, so yeah, I am in Lindsay bad books for that!

I also ordered a few little bits and pieces of paints that I was running low on, as well as a Character Brush and an Imagifier for my Sororitas from The Outpost.

Now that Forge World are open I did spend a little money and bought myself a couple of packs of Grey Slayer upgrades, a Space Wolves Praetor, Vulcan Mega Bolters for Titanicus and a transfer sheet for the Death Guard.

These arrived but I forgot to get a photo of them before they got stuff done with them.

And finally I got some Ultra Pro Silver Series 9 Pocket Pages to store my Beastgrave cards in.


Working with Decals

I have been running out of my Blood Ravens Transfers pretty quickly, and Forge World no longer make them.

The first think I was running out of was the basic Chapter symbol, and I found some on eBay a few weeks ago, and they seem ok and it gets me 238 chapter symbols for shoulder pads.

Printing Transfers

But these don’t sort out the other essential transfer I need, basic squad markings, and so I was looking into printing my own, and whilst browsing Amazon whilst very tired at 1am I bought some clear decal paper.

I am quite lucky that I have a colour laser printer, I know not everyone has that privilege, it was pricey but well worth the investment, and to be fair it was made for use at Company of Legends as well.

So obviously the paper I have bought is for a laser printer, but you can grab the same paper for inkjet printers. However if you do this, you need to seal the decals with a fixative spray.

I am not exactly a graphics designer and everything I needed is in fact quite simple, and has already been designed.

So I was simply able to download the tactical markings from Bolter and Chainsword, I did have to do a slight bit of work in Photoshop which was to basically put two of the sheets onto an A4 image as these were designed to be printed on A5 paper.

The symbols themselves are actually too big to fit on Space Marines shoulder pads when printed at the native size, so I am going to be making a new design of my own to get proper sized symbols.

I did have to play with the printer settings a bit, so I set the paper to be heavy glossy, obviously other printer settings will differ. I have a HP Color Laserjet M252dw, so I imagine that other HP laser printers have similar settings.

Applying Transfers

I for applying transfers I have a tried and tested technique that works well for me, especially on curved Space Marines should pads. For this you will need a few things.

  • Ardcoat or another Gloss Varnish
  • Decal Setter, Microset is the most popular
  • Cotton Buds
  • Decal Softener, Microsol is the most popular
  • Lahmian Medium

So my process is pretty simple, I have been asked a few times about it and I do intend to do a video for it at some point.

So the first step is that you need to give the area a coat of Ardcoat, or any other gloss varnish, such as Vallejo Gloss Varnish. This creates a smooth surface for the decal to adhere to with minimum friction and a lower chance of air bubbles. I know some people have been using Stormshield, but I haven’t tried this yet myself.

Applying Ardcoat Gloss Varnish

It’s really important that you give the varnish a good time to cure, if it’s not fully cleared when you apply some of the other stuff it will cause the varnish to peel off. I tend to give it a few hours to cure, sometimes longer because as soon as I have the final colour on the shoulder pads, I apply the Ardcoat.

The next step is to cut the transfer from the sheet, most modern GW transfers are good because the decal is only a small area around the image itself, so you don’t need to be too close when cutting around it.

Cut around the transfer as close to it as possible

However for a lot of other companies, older decals and ones you print yourself, you need to cut as close to the edge of the image as possible.

I then place the decal in water for between 30 and 45 second and put it down on a mat to fully loosen and in the meantime I turn my attention to the shoulder pad.

Dip the transfer in water for about 30 to 40 seconds

I apply a decal setter, at the moment I am using Mr Mark Decal Setter Neo, but I normally use Microset, but I have been having a lot of trouble getting hold of it at the moment for some reason.

What this does is it creates a nice surface that is sticky for decals and helps them adhere more easily, it also mildly softens the decal so it will conform to the surface better and lower the risk of air bubbles.

So I apply a small coat of this to the shoulder pad, and once the decal is loose on the paper, I then move it to the shoulder pad and gently move it off the paper into place.

Apply a decal setting solution like Microset or Mr Mark Setter Neo

At this point I then take a cotton bud, and use that to manipulate the decal to try and curve it on the shoulder pad, as well as drying up the excess moisture, it also helps to force out any air bubbles

So you start in the centre and sort of roll it to the edge, this also helps to force any moisture from out from underneath the transfer.

Using a cotton bud to help curve the transfer on the shoulder pad

I will then leave it a little while before going in and applying a decal softener, I am at the moment using Mr Mark Decal Softner Neo, but I would normally use Microsol. What this does is, well it softens the decal so that it curves better on the shoulder pad, adheres smoothly and is flat for that painted on look.

After the first coat of this is dried, I then repeat this step with another coat of softener, just to make sure that the decals are smooth and flat. Sometimes I have needed a third coat, but not often more than that.

Once this is done I then need to do some work to seal the transfer and matte down the glossy should pad, and the best thing I have found for this is Lahmian Medium, and frankly there isn’t really a decent alternative to this.

I give the shoulder pads two coats of this to the entire shoulder pad and allow it to totally dry between applications and the end result is hopefully a shoulder pad with icons on it that look painted on.

If you are applying decals to vehicles, when doing the Lahmian Medium stage, it’s important that you do the entire panel, if you only do part of the panel, it will stick out like a sore thumb.

And at the end of this you should be left with the decal looking as if it’s painted on and blending in quite nicely.

That’s my method, other people will offer alternative method which is cool, as with many hobby techniques, you ask 10 of us how to do something, you get 15 answers!

If the need any help if any advice just drop me a message or comment below.


Excited About Indomitus

Well colour me excited, did you guys see the unveiling of Indomitus this weekend!

I already told Jus at Battle Bunker to set me one aside and have been saving ever since 9th edition was announced.

I am actually gonna try and grab two copies, one from Element Games as well, because both my Blood Ravens and Ultramarines need these models.

I am thinking of splitting one box with Graham as he wants some Necrons and I really want him to get back into 40k, and to be honest, I only want one set of the Necrons myself.

I am really excited as I am sure you can tell, lots of amazing units that my Blood Ravens are desperately missing for their Primaris contingent.

Assault Intercessors look brilliant, although it’s a shame they don’t have Jump Packs, but my favourites are the Eradicators.

That combination of Gravis Armour with Melta weaponry just looks brilliant.

On the Necron side I love basically everything. The warriors look so much better than the current kit and the characters are astounding.

As for the other four kits revealed separately the same day, I gonna say it, I love the Invader ATV, I know that it’s looks a little goofy, but I really like the look of it.

I am not so sure about the Firestrike Servo-Turret, it just doesn’t do it for me, and as a long range support unit, a Lastalon seems like an odd choice of alternative weapon.

The Necron stuff on the other hand is all good, that Lokhurst Heavy Destoyer is beautiful, and the Canoptek Doomstalker is all sorts of weird and scary.

These four kits, well they strike me as perhaps being Easy to Build kits, I have no inside information, but it’s just a theory, after all, with the recent edition changes they have released a couple of decent Easy to Build kits with them.

In 8th Edition, Space Marines got a Redemptor Dreadnought and Aggressors, with Death Guard getting Lord Feltius and the Myphitic Blight Hauler, so I expect something similar for 9th Editon probably along with some basic troops for an equivalent set to First Strike.

Anyway I really can’t wait, everything I hear about 9th Edition just seems a lot more positive, a much needed refinement the core of 8th Edition to fix the issues that people have with the game.

What I Am Modelling

I got the unit of 40 Chainrasps finished first of all, this leaves me with one more unit of 40 left to do.

They are a bit of a chew in because they are delicate models with lots of spindly bits I need to avoid when adding things like the metallics and the basing material.

They are done to a battle ready standard, I am not gonna spend ages on the details of models that make up a horde this big.

I decided it’s time to crack on with the T’au so here are two Ethereals in Hoverdrones, I still need to get down painting white a lot better because right now my whites are terrible!

I then took two of my remaining three units of Blood Ravens left to rebase and did those, a Tactical Squad and a Captain, which leaves me with just a 10 man Assault Squad left to do.

I then moved on to my next squad of Intercessors for the Blood Ravens, just like the last lot this is a mix of Easy to Build, multipart and Dark Imperium models. And due to the situation I find myself in with regards to transfers, I decided to paint the Primaris Ancient at the same time.

Now I picked up something I have been looking forward to painting for ages, a pair of Death Guard Sabre Strike Tanks. I love the look of the Volkite, but decided that based on the fragility if Volkite weaponry in the lore, it would not be favoured by the Death Guard.

And so I decided that I would arm these with the Autocannons, nice and reliable and whilst they won’t trouble a Spartan they will be a pain to terminators and light to medium armoured vehicles. To keep them cheap I kept the Heavy Bolter as the secondary weapons and did not add any Sabre Missiles.

Once they were done I worked on rebasing my Blood Ravens Assault Marines, which means that I have completed my first resolution for the year.

I still have some other models on 25mm bases, but they need a full strip and repaint so not counting them as part of my army yet but I think I will be sorting them out a priority next year.

Then I picked up the Sequitors for the Stormcast Eternals from Soul Wars, it’s a weird sized unit, you need 5 for a minimum sized unit and can take two Stormsmite Greatmaces per 5 models and arm the Prime with one.

In Soul Wars you got 8 Sequitors, two with Stormsmite Greatmaces, a Prime with a Stormsmite Greatmaces a standard Prime and four normal Sequitors.

So I have two sets of the Easy to Build Sequitors which I have previously painted to allow me to field two units of five, both with two Stormsmite Greatmaces and one with a Prime with the Stormsmite Greatmace.

Whilst working on them I also picked up a Razorback Turret for the Blood Ravens to paint on the side, which didn’t take too long to paint at all.

Now I am working on the two Repulsor I have for the Blood Ravens.


So how does my painting queue now look?

  1. Blood Ravens Repulsor x 2
  2. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10
  3. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  4. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  5. Blood Ravens Aggressors x 3
  6. Death Guard Chaos Spawn x 2
  7. Stormcast Eternals Evocators x 5
  8. Space Wolves Blood Claws x 15
  9. Millitarium Tempestus Tempestor Prime, Command Squad Members x 9 & Valkyrie
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Autocannon Teams x 3

What I am Reading

Still reading The Founding, almost at the end of First and Only, but after that I will be putting it down to read Sons of the Selenar.

I started with a new audio book early on in the week with The Oubliette by J.C Stearns and finished because it was only a short one.

It was good but really needed more character development, and the corruption of the protagonist felt far too sudden and rushed.

But it entertained me a lot whilst I was painting, and the creature was pretty obvious in its nature from the moment of its introduction.

I have now started on listening to Knights of Macragge by Nick Kyme, which so far is alright.

What Am I Playing

On Sunday we played a game of Ticket to Ride: London, I love the Ticket to Ride games but Megan really struggles with them which makes me sad, but she seemed to enjoy playing this one tonight.

What Am I Backing

Still backing Chai: High Tea, I think we are all happy to be a part of this particular campaign.

Castle Panic Deluxe was gonna get backed, but they have cancelled that project to come back later with one that includes all of the expansions being given the deluxe treatment.

What Am I Cooking

The Friday night wings were Japanesse Wings this week and I made the marinade and put the wings in it.

Really simple marinade of soy sauce, sake, garlic and ginger but tasted utterly divine.

On Sunday as a team we made a Sunday dinner, using the Halogen Oven that Paul gave us to cook both the chicken and the roast potatoes, and it was really really nice.

What Am I Spending

I bought myself a cheap airbrush, went for a very cheap one because I don’t want to do what I did last time I tried airbrushing and buy a really fancy one that I then ruin because I don’t have a clue what I am doing.

This one was £23 and was from eBay.

My first package of stuff I bought the other weekend for Aeronautica Imperialis arrived, this was the two new sets of dice and the Taros Area of Engagement plus a couple of paints I needed.

And my Blood Ravens transfers finally arrived from China, I will be giving a shot at making some transfers of my own eventually, but for now I bought these.


It’s a Lazy Response

This week I have seen lots of people and companies being accused of virtue signalling, and this is something I really hate. So what is virtue signalling, well the dictionary defines it as:-

the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one’s good character or the moral correctness of one’s position on a particular issue.

Oxford Dictionary

So why do I dislike it when people accuse others of doing it, well because it’s used as a weapon to try and silence people who speak out against bigotry, racism, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia etc.

It’s an attempt to attach a badge of shame to anyone who dares to speak up and say, hey this isn’t ok.

Yeah there are certainly going to be people out there that would meet the negative definition of virtue signalling that people accuse others of doing, I am looking at most politicians here. But the vast majority of people, when they speak out against something, it’s not because they want to look right on, it’s because they genuinely believe in what they are saying.

Why would we want to stigmatise compassion and tolerance, and frankly it’s lazy, instead of defending a position, which usually is not a good position to defend, people think that they can dismiss people by saying all they are doing is virtue signalling.

People should be altruistic, they should stand up to injustices and have concern for others, they should be filled with moral outrage at some of the horrors that go on in the world.

And yet more people are keeping it to themselves because they fear being labelled as a virtue signaller.

Personally I don’t care if you think I am a virtue signaller, I don’t think it’s wrong to hold and express beliefs about the problems faced by others.

And if brands want to stand up and start saying that they are outraged by the situation right now, then I back them.

Sometimes all the action that some of us can do is to be outraged and express our outrage, others can do more, but every little thing we do can and could help even if it’s as simple as helping getting something trending on Twitter.

In short, if you are upset or outraged by something, or you see a situation that is unjust, then speak up and ignore the idiots who are too lazy to think of anything to say other than accuse you of virtue signalling.

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by finishing off the Retributors and Knight-Vexillor I had started last week.

This completes the original Age of Sigmar starter set I got five years ago at long last!

And then I moved on to painting four Grey Hunters Pack Leaders for my Space Wolves, along with an Iron Priest and a Repulsor.

I finished the Wolf Guard Pack Leaders first. Reason I have made these models is because in 8th Edition, Space Wolves packs must have a Pack Leader, unlike in 7th where you could take a Wolf Guard instead.

I then painted the Iron Priest, I had wanted to finish the Repulsor too, but I was running short of Leadbelcher.

Then I put the Blood Ravens Chaplains on the table, five of them in fact. I finished three of them on Friday, the MKIV, Terminator and Primaris ones, I had kinda concentrated on these three because of the robes/capes, not sure what it’s just the way my mind worked

I got a delivery of paints so was then able to concentrate on the Repulsor and get that finished, which I did so on Saturday, lovely model and I have two of them for the Blood Ravens coming up to paint.

The next day I painted a Chaplain on foot and one with a Jump Pack, I had painted the Jump Pack one many years ago when I first got back into the hobby, but when I stripped it, I found I had put on the paint so thick it just wouldn’t come off without damaging the resin. So I bought a new one a couple of years ago and only just got round to painting it.

I then moved onto my next 40 strong Chainrasp Horde, the second of three I have to paint, these are being painted in a scheme found in the White Dwarf of December 2019.

Whilst various washes and technical paints are drying on them, I picked up a few other bits to do on the side, specifically a Sons of Horus Contemptor Dreadnought and Centurion with Early Crusade Honours.

And I also painted a Quake Cannon for a Warlord Titan for Adeptus Titanicus as well, this is the second one I got and I made this up for the left hand side of a Warlord Titan.

The Chainrasps just need thier based finishing, but I had to get to bed so they will be finished tomorrow.


So how does this leave my painting plan for the near future?

  1. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  2. T’au Ethereal on a Hover Drone x 2
  3. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 10
  4. Death Guard Sabre Strike Tanks
  5. Stormcast Eternals Sequitors
  6. Blood Ravens Repulsor x 2
  7. Death Korps of Krieg Ogryns
  8. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  9. T’au Pathfinders x 10, Darkstrider & Devilfish
  10. Death Korps of Krieg Infantry Squad x 10

What I Am Reading

Reading The Founding still and enjoying it

I finished Cadian Honour, which was very enjoyable, although the narrator kept calling the Leman Russ tank a Lemon Russ which was a bit weird. Loved the continued use of the Geordie accent for Cadians.

I have also listened to the Blackstone Fortress audiobook which is most enjoyable, and the only thing is disliked is that we didn’t get much more than a cameo from UR-025.

What I Am Playing

Sadly the girls haven’t wanted to play anything this week.

What I Am Backing

We have gone in on Chai: High Tea to get the $79 level which gets use the deluxe version of Chai and the High Tea Expansion.

What I Am Cooking

On Friday nights during lockdown we have been having wing night and we have been trying various different ways to cook chicken wings.

So this Friday I made the infant, which were slow cooked General Tso’s Chicken Wings. Lindsay and Megan made the sides which were Chinese Fried Green Beans and Soy Sauce Noodles.

They were absolutely beautiful and the meat just melted in your mouth!

And on Saturday I made some Tangy BBQ Pit Beans, this is a variation of the recipe I tried a few weeks ago, we replaced the beans and sausages with smoked sausage and one time of baked beans with black eyed beans, the bacon was grilled and then broken up and we added an extra pepper.

What I Am Spending

To keep supporting Battle Bunker I spent some money with them and bought myself a Valkyrie for my Millitarium Tempestus, been after one of these for a while, and never had the money.

So when the chance arose to get one, I took it.

I also picked up some paint from Games Workshop along with some Aeronautica Imperialis tokens to stock up for the month, for some reason they split the order into four shipments, three of which were dispatched on Tuesday, the other apparently on Friday and arrived the same day, the other three arrived on Saturday.

I also made rather a large order on Saturday with Element Games when Aeronautica Imperialis Skies of Fire was released. I ordered that set, plus a few brushes, couple of paints, the Taros Area of Engagment, both the T’au and Imperial Navy Dice plus I got Prophecy of the Wolf as well for Ragnar and Ghazghkull Mag Uruk Thraka.

Hopefully this will arrive next weekend, if not early next week.


Seeking Diverse Board Games

There was a discussion in a Facebook group I am part of this Sunday, asking what are people’s favourite games designed by minority designers.

Sadly it was shut down and deleted before I could comment, apparently there were some undesirable comments in it.

But the thread asking why it was deleted which was quickly shut down showed what kind of comments I should have imagined.

When it comes to the board games industry, I think it would be fair to say that it does have a representation issue. My first U.K. Games Expo was 90% bearded white dudes, last year was very different to be fair, a lot more women, a lot more families a lot more LGBTQ folk, but white men (usually with a belly and beard like myself) still made up the majority of the attendees.

And the number of BAME attendees is still very low, which is shame, and I think that part of that is when there is a discussion about BAME game designers, you get comments about why does someone’s race matter, that it’s just playing identity politics and only working to divide people.

I am gonna be frank here, representation matters, if we see BAME game designers front and centre, then more BAME people will want to play board games.

I have sadly had a few occasions where when demonstrating games, I have been told by BAME people that board games are not something that people like them play, and I think that a big part of that is, because the board game hobby is seen very much as a very white dominated hobby.

Of course there will be those that continue to say that it should not matter what race someone is when they design a game, but I don’t think that’s a good way to think about it.

Let’s look at the most famous BAME board game designer, Eric Lang. He is a mixed race fella and had designed some amazing games, and come up with some brilliant and innovative game mechanisms.

Naturally, he will have a different background to many other game designers, coming from two different cultural backgrounds. And this difference in experiences will no doubt have contributed to the mix of talents skills and talents possessed by Lang, that has allowed him to innovate and design games in different ways to the average designer.

And I highlight him because he is an exception, he is a great designer, at the top of the industry who just happens to be mixed race, but the fact that he is sadly the only BAME designer of any notoriety is why his ethnicity stands out. In an ideal world, his ethnicity wouldn’t be something so noticeable because there would be a lot more BAME designers.

So when we have a board game industry that’s more diverse, we get more great games, we get more innovation, more challenging games.

We have seen that as more women are designing games, we are getting a bit of that, but most of the women designing games are coming from the same socio-economic background as their male counterpoints.

This isn’t me saying I want to see less games designed but white men, but what I want are more game designers, a bigger pool of talent, and for people to come into the industry who can offer innovation from which all designers can learn.

A case in point is music, over the past century, the biggest driver in development of popular music has been the influence of the music of other cultures. Ok yes in a lot of cases white people still dominate that industry whist using making music highly influenced by other cultures. But without the influences of other cultures, we wouldn’t have had jazz, rock and roll, rap etc.

So if we encourage game designers from other backgrounds, and I am not just taking about different ethnicities, but also religion, class, nationalities, education, disabilities etc.

The bigger the pool of talent, the better games we get, the more diverse an industry we have, the more players we have, the more opponents we have , the more games sold and the bigger the industry.

This is just my perspective, and I know that as a white dude, I enjoy a huge amount of privilege, but I don’t want to be a dude who sits back and says, I don’t see race I just see the games.

People like me have to say something when we see comments like that, we need to point out that representation is important, we need to say, actually, we want to see games from BAME designers specifically. And most important of all, listen to players, content creators and designers from a BAME background have to say on the matter.

If you want to follow up on this can I suggest checking out games by BAME designers, google and look for them, sadly I could only find Eric Lang and Omari Akil with my Google Fu, and in fairness of all the game designers I have met, the only one who was BAME was Eric Lang.

Also check out content creators who are BAME, simply because most reviewers out there are straight white dudes, and yeah their reviews are good, but getting reviews from people with different backgrounds can give you a perspective that you yourself may not have considered, which may open up new gaming possibilities, or make you reconsider a game. I’d recommend Be Bold Games and Geeky Gaymer Guy on YouTube.

I admit I probably made an incoherent mess of this whole post, but this something I feel strongly about, and I will end with a bit of wisdom from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Consider the flowers of a garden. Though differing in kind, color, form and shape, yet, inasmuch as they are refreshed by the waters of one spring, revived by the breath of one wind, invigorated by the rays of one sun, this diversity increaseth their charm and addeth unto their beauty. How unpleasing to the eye if all the flowers and plants, the leaves and blossoms, the fruit, the branches and the trees of that garden were all of the same shape and color! Diversity of hues, form and shape enricheth and adorneth the garden, and heighteneth the effect thereof.

Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

What I Am Modelling

I started the week by starting the Prosecutors from the Age of Sigmar starter set and a Knight-Venator for my Stormcast Eternals, these were a lot quicker to paint than I thought they would be.

This means the only remaining models from the original Age of a Sigmar box set I have left to paint are the Retributors.

I then started work on some Blood Ravens Intercessors and Sgt Jovan.

The Intercessors are a mix of multipart models, a Dark Imperium model and one from the easy to build set. These five models will add to the squad I painted up when Dark Imperium first came out and give me a full squad of ten Intercessors.

I am painting Sgt Jovan at the same time because it’s makes sense to paint him with these six instead of later on with a squad of ten.

I then started work on three Blood Ravens Land Speeders, which I got finished on Sunday afternoon. I have built and painted here a Typhoon and two Tornadoes.

I then started work on 5 Retributors, a Knight-Heraldor and a Knight-Vexillor for my Stormcast Eternals.

The Knight-Heraldor was finished today, I dunno why but I decided to focus on just him.

I also made sure all of my next ten projects are built, primed and paced into my “in-tray“.


So how does my painting plan look for now.

  1. Stormcast Eternals Retributors x 5 & Knight-Vexillor.
  2. Space Wolves Grey Hunters Packs Leaders x 4, Iron Priest & Repulsor
  3. Blood Ravens Chaplains x 5
  4. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  5. Sons of Horus Contemptor Dreadnought
  6. T’au Ethereal on Hover Drone x 2
  7. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 10
  8. Death Guard Sabre Strike Tank x 2
  9. Stormcast Eternals Sequitors x 8
  10. Blood Ravens Repulsor x 2

What I Am Reading

I finished Valdor: Birth of the Imperium, I enjoyed it, but I found it very short and I think I would have like there to be more to it.

I have now started on The Founding by Dan Abnett the first Gaunts Ghosts omnibus, I have been getting hassle from Graham and Chris for having never read any Gaunts Ghosts books so I am correcting that oversight.

In terms of audio books I listened to Honourbound by Racheal Harrison, because I really loved the story and it was just as enjoyable in audio format.

I also finished listening to Cadia Stands by Justin D Hill, which was really good and I was quite pleased to hear that Cadians are in fact, space Geordies.

And I just started listening to Cadian Honour by Justin D Hill which continues the Cadians are Geordies theme.

What I Am Playing

Sadly not a sausage, really sad about that.

What I Am Backing

Still backing Railroad Ink Challenge, but I am considering dropping my pledge at this point just due to financial issues.

We are seriously looking at backing Chai: High Tea, the game looks really nice.

What I Am Cooking

For Sunday morning breakfast I made a slow cooker hash brown and smoked sausage casserole, it tasted a lot better than it looked.

Next time I am thinking of reducing the smoked sausage a bit, adding some unsmoked bacon lardons and a finely diced green pepper.

What I Am Spending

My first premium pack for Mortal Realms arrived, a slight issue with a sprue but nowt that I can’t imagine will take long to deal with.

The pack is of Flesh Eaters Courts and contains an Abhorrant Archregent, 20 Crypt Ghouls, and 3 Crypt Flayers, plus Athonian Camoshade and an extra magazine

The only issue is that Lindsay and Megan are not pleased that I am giving serious thought into turning these guys into an army that I would play with!

We also as a household decided to buy Pandemic: Hot Zone North America, we love Pandemic and the idea of a smaller, quicker version of the game is very appealing, just like Ticket to Ride London.

I also purchased a couple of sheets of transfers with the Blood Ravens chapter symbol, but they aren’t due to arrive until July as they are coming from China.

And finally I bought myself a 12 pack of Carabao Sugar Free Green Apple, annoyingly I have been living on energy drinks lately, they have really been helping me get through the day.

But this on is my current favourite, and thankfully is sugar free.


May Resolutions Update

How did I do in May for my resolutions, well let’s have a look shall we.

Paint 867 Models – 70.59%

Kinda smashing this one, I have painted 612 models so far this year and I have plans to do 80 Chainrasps in June which will take me a good chunk of the rest of the way.

Terrain and Nighthaunts have really helped me get ahead with this resolution.

This month I have painted up to

Finish Painting The Blood Ravens I Own on 1st January – 58.97%

This month I painted two units of Scouts, these I got from Conquest last summer. I actually bought two extra copies for these, my subscription copy is going to the Blood Angels I share with Megan.

I also painted five Intercessors to reinforce a squad of five I already have painted, plus Sgt Jovan, although he doesn’t actually count towards the resolution as I got in this year.

And finally I managed to paint my three Land Speeders, a Typhoon and two Tornados.

This brings me above the half way point and puts me well ahead of schedule.

Finish The Death Guard – 83.33%

Well I made a giant leap forward with the Death Guard this month by painting the Tallyman, which is the last of the Conquest collection to be done, and two sets of Blightlord Terminators.

All I have left to do now is a pair of Chaos Spawn and Mortarion himself, the Chaos Spawn are now built and primed and I am planning long term for when I will paint Mortarion.

Complete 2000 Points of Stormcast Eternals – 70%

This month I was able to add a Knight-Questor, Lord-Ordinator, two Celestar Balista, three Prosectors and a Knight-Venator to the list, taking me up to 1400 points painted.

Next month I am going to come up with an actual game list to use for this resolution, it’s all fine and dandy having 2000 points painted but if it’s not a useable list does it count?

So it’s likely that this percentage will come down as I figure that list out.

Rebase Blood Ravens 25%

I made a start on this by rebasing the first Tactical Squad, and leaves me with another Tactical Squad, an Assault Squad and a Captain to do still, but it’s a start.

I intend to get this completed in June.

Other Resolutions

  • Complete 1750 Points of T’au
  • Complete 1750 Points of Orks
  • Rebase the Orks
  • Paint Mortarion for Everchosen

Not much to report here, the plan is to rebase a few Orks next month, and as you will see some T’au units are starting to appear on my painting plan now.


So let’s have a look at the painting plan and what I have planned in the next few weeks.

As I said the first T’au units have appeared on the list as have the first Sons of Horus unit for the Edge of Empire Podcast army.

  1. Stormcast Eternals Retributors x 5, Knight-Heraldor and Knight-Vexillor
  2. Space Wolves Grey Hunters Pack Leaders x 4 and Iron Priest
  3. Blood Ravens Chaplains x 5
  4. Chainrasp Horde x 40
  5. Sons of Horus Contemptor Dreadnought
  6. T’au Ethereal on Hover Drone x 2
  7. Blood Ravens Intercessors x 10
  8. Death Guard Sabre Strike Tanks x 2
  9. Stormcast Eternals Sequitors x 8
  10. Blood Ravens Repulsor x 2

Long term I am aiming to complete the Blood Ravens within the next three months, most of what’s ahead of me for them is Infantry units, 16 units are left to do, of which 7 are characters.

The T’au are starting to feature in my long term planning now, but I do have phase 3 of Niki’s Death Korps of Krieg which I am going to start slotting in from next week.


Starting Flesh-Eaters Courts with Mortal Realms

For those of you subscribing to Mortal Realms, if you went Premium, then you will hopefully by now have the first Premium set which focuses on the Flesh-Eater Courts.

So I decided to look at how you would turn this into a 1000pt army and a 2000pt army for as little as possible.

So let’s look at what the box gives you first off, and what you get if you build it as the guide suggests.

  • Abhorrant Archregent
  • Crypt Ghouls x 20
  • Crypt Flayers x 3

So let’s look at they when plugged into Azyr, and if you split the Crypt Ghouls into two units of 10 that gives you 610 points.

So where would I go from here, well personally I would grab a Start Collecting Flesh-Eater Courts, this gives you an additional 10 Crypt Ghouls, 3 more Crypt Flayers and a Terrorgheist plus I’d also grab the Endless Spells.

Now you can’t pop all this in the list to get to 1000pts, you would go way over, but that’s fine because we are gonna use most of the box to get to 2000pts.

So with this in mind my new list would be:-

  • Abhorrant Archregent
  • Abhorrant Ghoulking
  • Crypt Ghouls x 10
  • Crypt Ghouls x 10
  • Crypt Ghouls x 10
  • Crypt Flayers x 3
  • Chalice of Ushoran
  • Corpsemare Stampede

And that gets you to 990pts.


Ok so let’s get cracking on with 2000pts.

Straightaway I am gonna throw in the Terrorgheist, and then build some Crypt Horrors to use up the rest of the Start Collecting set.

That gets you to 1420 and I think the best way to go to 2000, is to buy another Start Collecting set!

So from that we add in an Abhorrant Ghoul King on a Terrorgheist, and we make from the Crypt Flayers, plus the bits we have saved from the other kits, a Crypt Haunter Courtier and a Crypt Infernal Courtier plus another one of your choice to use all three models.

So the list I have now looks like this:-

  • Abhorrant Archregent
  • Abhorrant Ghoul King
  • Abhorrant Ghoul King on a Royal Terrorgheist
  • Crypt Infernal Courtier (Or Crypt Haunter Courtier)
  • Crypt Ghouls x 10
  • Crypt Ghouls x 10
  • Crypt Ghouls x 10
  • Royal Terrorgheist
  • Crypt Horrors x 3
  • Crypt Flayers x 3
  • Corpsemare Stampede
  • Chalice of Ushoran

That gives you a list of 1960pts for adding two Start Collecting boxes and the Endless Spells.

And it leaves you with 10 Crypt Ghouls left over, personally I’d be tempted to make a Crypt Ghasy Courtier and then hit eBay up for the parts to make another Crypt Ghast so you can have another full unit of 10 for when you want to change your list up.

I am not going to pretend this list will won you games, because frankly I don’t know if it will, I haven’t played Flesh-Eater Courts before and I won’t pretend this is a big tactica article.

But this will get you an army for Battlehost level games for as little outlay as possible.

If you were to buy the kits from Element Games, it would cost you £110.50, which isn’t too bad.

I’d also be tempted to grab the Charnel Throne as well, it’s not too much of an outlay and does look really cool.


When it comes to painting them, Peachy at Warhammer TV did a great video for painting The Grymwatch, the Warhammer Underworlds Warband for the Flesh-Eaters Courts and if you are gonna do Hollowmourne this is the way I would paint them.

In fact I probably will paint them this way.

So let me know what you think of my ideas, and if you are gonna give them a try out, let me know how it goes!


Just a quick note, if you do follow the links to Element Games and buy something from them, a little bit of a commission is made for Edge of Empire which helps keep the podcast running.


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