After a difficult summer, I am starting to get myself back on track, still need to work out a weeks schedule, but I am getting there
The studio is much tidier, I have reinstalled Windows to deal with my glitch gremlins, I am painting more, I am playing more video games, and working on my mental health more.
We have made some good investments in the houses infrastructure, replacing the homelab, getting new hoovers, and an FDM 3D printer, still have a few more things to pay for/pay off but we are getting there.
My next thing to tackle is getting on with some more physical exercise, but lets see how next week goes.
What I am Modelling
I turned my attention to the Blood Angels to get a bunch of them finished off so I can have the Combat Patrol ready to go,
I painted up the Intercessors from the Combat Patrol
On Sunday, I ran the First Blood event at Durham Raiders
We wanted to have the hall available so people could come along and play some games of 3rd edition Heresy to get their head around the rules and figure out the game with all the changes
I took Ultramarines and had these two lists ready, this one for 2000 points
We rocked up at 8am and got the hall set up, and at 9am the players started rolling in, we had 7 attendees plus myself
I started to play a game with Adam and his Custodes, and oh my word they are tasty, very tough to kill with the lack of AP2 weapons in the marines, and the Hawkmen scored 8 points on the first turn, 3 from Vanguard from killing my squad on the objective, 1 for the objective and 4 for First Strike!
We got two turns in before someone else turned up and needed a game, so I let them play out a full game
After that I moistly chilled as others played games, but towards the end I got another two round game with good old Paul, of course he beat me but I learnt a lot!
It was a good day, was hoping for better attendance, but it was fine, I only lost £20 on it!
But a ton of fun was had an we met some new guys which is always great.
What I Am Modelling
I painted up this Heavy Support Squad for the Ultramarines, armed with Autocannons in MKVI Armour
After that I read Glory from Chaos by Chris Dows, which was fine, not the best story he has done, not the worst, it was kind of middling.
What Tabletop Games I Am Playing
Had my first game in the Gamer-At-Hart Combat Patrol League, I am playing with the Astra Millitarium Combat Patrol, Strike Force Gorgonne VI which is a Millitarium Tempestus one.
I played Alex and his Vardenghast Swarm, and they absolutely wreaked me!
What I Am Spending
Technically I bought this last week, but it finally arrived, an Arvus Lighter for the Solar Auxilia
I ordered this on payday, but it has arrived today, an Arvus Lighter to add to the Solar AuxiliaFigure this will be great for getting some dudes into Objectives #Warmongers #WarhammerCommunity #Warhammer30k #Warhammer30000 #HorusHeresy #TheHorusHeresy #SolarAuxilia #ArvusLighter
I am sadly like far too many PC gamers and will upgrade my rig regardless if it needing it sometimes!
And in all honesty if the RTX 3070 wasn’t struggling with its VRAM in certain games I probably would have kept it as its performance is good, it’s just been hamstrung slightly which is annoying.
Also AV1 encoding is fantastic, and has been really good for my YouTube videos.
But that card is still going to live on in the house as Megan has had their rig upgraded from the GTX 1660Ti to the RTX 3070, which will give her some great gaming performance in the games they play, like Disney Dreamlight Valley and The Sims 4.
Meanwhile her GTX 1660Ti and the Ryzen 5 3600 that used to live in that rig, which I upgraded to a 5600X when I changed my CPU to a 5700X3D, well we have an idea for that!
What I am Modelling
I started off by painting this Command Squad for my Ultramarines in MKIII Armour, 5 guys all armed with Power Swords and Combat Shields
I listened to the next couple of books in the Doctor Who monthly range staring with Live 34 by James Parson which was pretty good, this was followed by Scaredy Cat by Will Shindler which was actually pretty dire.
I then started to listen to The Silent asking by Guy Haley, which is quite good, seems to be weaving together a few more recent threads from the novels of 8th and 9th editions.
It was a great game, but I lost, and that was down to secondaries, Russell got ahead early on, but I was able to catch up, what cost me the game was not having a balanced list to be honest, not enough Line and no Vanguard
The next videos in the Heresy series went up, those being Ultramarines and Death Guard, two legions I have been collecting for a long time as well as the Thousand Sons
I also published the next episode of Edge of Empire
What I Am Spending
I bought a few games, a couple of Humble Bundles starting with this months Humble Choice that got me
We borrowed some already dried blue filament from Paul, the first thing printed, other than a benchy and a poop bin, was some replacement pegs for our Socktopus, using an STL that Lindsay found on the Bambu Handy app
I published the paining videos for the Night Lords, Blood Angels, Iron Hands and World Eaters this past fortnight
And a further Edge of Empire episode!
What I Am Spending
Ok, these next two I didn’t spend money on but rather was gifted, starting out with a Sicaran Venator that someone gave to Gamers-At-Hart to distribute to the community, and this one ended ok with me
Will be making the guys inside as all Power Sword and Combat Shield guys as I have a MKIII banner guy to join them already, but will probably print off a couple of MKVI bodies to make two more Heralds/Banner Bearers
Of course I was saving up for Saturnine, and I picked it up from Gamers@Hart last Saturday
I haven’t been posting for a while, alas a lot of it comes down to going through my usual summer slump and a bit of depression I have been battling, but I am trying to turn myself around.
Giving myself some projects to do, and things to try and keep me occupied, I really think I am missing Company of Legends, it gave me something to focus on, something to look forward to and these last couple of years without it, well I have been doing a bit badly.
But let’s crack on and update you on my last few months, so let’s get into it!
Heresy Camp
This other weekend, I attended Heresy Camp, run by some amazing friends of mine, and how did a not “Company of Legends” weekender go?
On Friday I met up with James at Gamers-at-Hart and we played a warm up game with our armies, my Solar Auxilia and his Sisters of Silence
Aethon Heavy Sentinel Squadron [200 Pts]: • 3x Aethon Heavy Sentinel [65 Pts]: Aethon Missile Battery, Multi-Laser
Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350 Pts]: • 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield
Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350 Pts]: • 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350 Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield
## Lords of War [300 Pts]
Macharius Heavy Tank Squadron [300 Pts]: Macharius Vanquisher Cannon • 1x Macharius Heavy Tank [280 Pts]: Two Sponson Mounted heavy stubbers, Hull (Front) Mounted twin-linked heavy stubber, Smoke Launchers
After the game myself and James made our way to Moorhouse Adventure Centre where we hung out for a bit, I was going to play Zone Mortalis, but decided to come home that night cause I wanted us to pick up Graham the next morning, but there were some great games being played
The missions and environment rules were fairly punishing with vehicles and dreadnoughts moving within 3” of terrain having to fire on the nearest United friend or foe, which saw me destroy one of own Carnadons and Nick wipe out a Recon Squad of his
Deamon Fulgrim is a beast and basically ate two squads of Lasmen and my Command squad, in the end I lost by a lot!
Game 2 was on table 3 vs Johns Death Guard, which was a mostly infantry list, but damn Death Guard are tough
Combination of Mortaion, who kept healing the wounds I put on him, and a trio of Dreadnoughts just ripped apart my tanks and I was tabled again
Game 3 was against Chris’s World Eaters on Table 4 and I wasn’t tabled, which was a bonus, but his fast troops, and awesome advanced reaction made short work of my tanks.
After the game I had my tea, a lovely Chinese takeaway of chips and fried rice in curry sauce and salt and pepper chicken, after which we had a Heresy Quiz, which I did respectably in.
The next day I played Matthew and his traitor White Scars, which was tough game, the rules were a bit complicated and I was forced to keep my men out of their transports to carry the objective.
Then I painted up a test piece for a new terrain project, this one is going to be for a no man’s land board for Trench Crusade, but is also going to be generic enough that it won’t look out of place in Bolt Action or Warhammer Fantasy Battle
This year I want to finally play some Legions Imperialis, so I painted up the bases to make my Aeronautica models usable, went for a sandstone type scheme
And finally, myself and Graham had an intro game of Bolt Action in which I played the Germans (because I already have a German army) and Graham the British, I think he won, but really we were just figuring the game out
I originally bought it on GOG a few days after release, despite my system at the time only having a 1660 Ti, which wouldn’t have run it well, but I got it for under a tenner due to the very poor reviews of the state it was in at launch.
But my experience with GOG Galaxy and its cloud saves ended up having me buy it on Steam in a sale earlier this year, alongside Phantom Liberty.
I even bought Phantom Liberty on GOG, but losing all my saves in Control when GOG Galaxy crashed, has put me off GOG for anything I really want to invest time in.
So the reason I am only now just playing it now is cause with these kinds of games, I tend to wait until all the expansion are out, and then have a massive big playthough then, and well it took a bit for Phantom Liberty to come out and I was busy with other stuff.
I have still been playing some Hell Let Loose most Mondays at least and often a game on Wednesday nights as well, and the other week we had this score which was incredible!
I have started a new YouTube painting series Just About Tabletop Standard, in which I am going to paint a Marine from each of the 18 Legions from Horus Heresy.
We started out with an episode on the Dark Angels, followed by an episode on the Emperor’s Children
What I Am Spending
The grown up purchase the past few months was a new vacuum cleaner, we ended up getting a GTech AirRam Mk2 K9, and Lindsay is very happy with it, she always gets excited for new vacuum cleaners!
Our new car was also delivered, we got a Renault Mégane E-Tech which is a really nice car, quite a bit more range than our last and a few extra niceties as well, like a pair of USB-C sockets in the back and dual zone air-con
I managed to get all of the issues of Combat Oatrol I wanted, issues 37, 38, 39 and 40, to get me a Helbrute, some Chaos Terminators and some Wraithguard
Whilst at UK Games Expo, I did pick up the Battletech Beginner Box, I really want to play some of this game again, played it as a teenager, and want to relive my youth!
This Saturday I went to see the stage adaptation of Jeff Wayne’s War of the Worlds at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle, the ticket was a birthday present from Paul.
They had Charlie Simpson from Busted singing the narrators parts, and he was really good.
The guy performing as the Artilleryman was particle good, that was Rou Reynolds from Enter Shikari, a band I have now gotten a few albums for!
We also learned that Lindsay has never listened to the album, and she only knew The Eve of the War, not even Forever Autumn, so we have been introducing her to it, and in the car this morning, we ended just before Thunder Child.
What I Am Modelling
I started off with the Tyranids getting a second Psychopage to add to their forces
I then painted some Tempestus Scions to complete their Combat Patrol, starting with two Tempestors with Power Fists and Bolt Pistols, four Scions with Grenade Launchers and three Command Squad Scions with Hotshot Lasguns
I also painted a squad of Retributors for my Sisters of Battle
Finished painting a squad of Retributors for the Argent Shroud, armed with 2 Multi-Meltas and 2 Heavy Flamers#Warmongers #WarhammerCommunity #PaintSlam25 #Warhammer40k #Warhammer40000 #AdeptaSororitas #Retributors #ArgentShroud #PaintingWarhammer #PaintingWarhammer2025
I am currently working on Swampboss Skumdrekk and a Dankhold Trogboss
So whata next on the painting table?
Blood Angels Landspeeders
Swampboss Skumdrekk
Imperial Fists Command Squad
The Ancestors Wrath Einhyr Champion & Kâhl Yôht Grendok
Kellermorph & Neophyte Hybrids x 10
Ogryn Charinite Squad x 3
Dankhold Trogboss
Phallax Warders x 10
Scarab Occult Terminators x 5 & Infernal Master
Dark Angels Incursors x 5
What I Am Reading
I listened to Catch-1782 by Alison Lawson which was a great little Six and Mel story that took a look at the Grandfather Paradox in an interesting way.
Struggled to figure out how I would run them in 10th, but my addition of some Leman Russ tanks plus a few more Scions has given me a lot more options to try.
My first game was against Eds Aeldari, and his Aspect Warriors tore apart my army bit by bit and in turn 3 basically removed all but the squad inside the Valkyrie
Ed is a really good player, so I didn’t stand much of a chance against him to be honest, but he is a lively guy to play with so it’s not too bad
My second game was against my pal Leon and his T’au, which featured a lot of Kroot, and the first couple of turns were pretty good, I managed to focus fire on a Commander and a squad of Battlesuits and eliminated them.
The second turn saw me destroy a second Commander and Battlesuit Team, but turn 3 saw the tough Kroot Rampagers tore apart tanks, Taurox Primes and left my Scions to be slaughtered
My last game of the day was against Ian’s Emperors Children, who are very much WIP
Anyway, turned out with the Artillery counting as infantry (I know right) and the rest of the list being Armoured Fist, I cannot take the Earthshaker Cannons 🙁
So I will now be taking this list, and thank goodness I printed and painted the Macharius last week!
LI - Solar Auxilia - Solar For Camp - [2998Pts]
# ++ Crusade Force Organisation Chart ++ [2698Pts] ## Expanded Army Lists Expanded Army List Profiles: Exemplary Units On, Legacy Units On
## Heavy Support [900Pts] Aethon Heavy Sentinel Squadron [200Pts]: • 3x Aethon Heavy Sentinel [65Pts]: Aethon Missile Battery, Multi-Laser
Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350Pts]: • 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield
Malcador Heavy Tank Squadron [350Pts]: • 1x Malcador Heavy Tank [350Pts]: Searchlights, Smoke Launchers, Vanquisher Battle Cannon, Demolisher Cannon, Hull (Left) & Hull (Right) Mounted Lascannon, Pintle Mounted Multi-Laser, Dozer Blade, Flare Shield
## Lords of War [300Pts] Macharius Heavy Tank Squadron [300Pts]: Macharius Vanquisher Cannon • 1x Macharius Heavy Tank [280Pts]: Two Sponson Mounted heavy stubbers, Hull (Front) Mounted twin-linked heavy stubber, Smoke Launchers
So yeah the Artillery is dropped, along with the Melta Lances on the Aethon Heavy Sentinels, which get Multi-Lasers instead, and in goes a Macharius Vanquisher
So left to paint for the event are
Aethon Heavy Sentinel x 3
Malcador Heavy Tank
I started work on the Malcador today and will start on the Aethons next week.
Since I got the 3D printer in August, most of my prints have been infantry, with a few Rhino sized tanks
But this project is the biggest print so far, and required 3 full to the brim plates done!
It’s a proxy for the Macharius Heavy Tank called the Lupercal, and it’s a beautiful model.
The first plate which had on the turret, sponsons and part of the tracks, took just shy of 9 hours to print
The second which had on the sides and engine block was a chew on to print. The first attempt failed at 77% done, which was fine for the engine block, but the sides were partly completed. The printer appeared to have crashed, which was annoying.
The second attempt was just the sides, plus the Heavy Stubber Sponsons which I had forgotten was the only configuration the Solar Auxilia version could take, and that didn’t print at all.
Once it was all printed cleaned and cured, it was then time to put it together, as you can tell I decided to print the parts for all three weapons that can be swapped in and out,
Those being the standard Battlecannons, Vanquisher Cannons and a Rotary Bolt Cannon (used to be a Vulcan Mega Bolter and that was much cooler)
This has a base of Mechanicus Standard Grey (AP Deep Grey), then the camo pattern using Thunderhawk Blue and Abbadon Black, with a recess wash of Agrax Earthshade then a Dawnstone dry brush
When it was finished I coated the tracks in Stirland Mud and added some static grass for texture after which I drybrushed it with Gothor Brown and then Screaming Skull.
I am pretty happy with how this turned out and it’s adding a decent big tank to the Solar Auxilia even though it’s pretty pointless for its cost, and a Leman Russ Vanquisher is far more points efficient.
So what have I learned from this project, well if I want to tackle anything bigger, I will need a wash and cure station, a Stormhammer is something I want to do, but would have issues with the processing of it due to size
And to be honest, it’s given me a lot more confidence to run longer prints, which is something I have tried to avoid in the past cause I didn’t like being unable to monitor them.
But here is the thing when it comes to my 3D printing and Warhammer, I don’t want to be the guy who 3D prints everything. For the Solar Auxilia, so much stuff is still in very expensive resin, or just not in production, even in resin, that I found myself needing to 3D print a good ton of models.
I want to support my FLGSs, but at the same time, I enjoy the hobby of 3D printing, especially tanks, for my Krieg I want to print some Chimeras and Hellhounds for example.
I guess I am just trying to find that middle ground, where I am trying to 3D print some stuff but also making sure to buy actual plastic models for others.
It’s an interesting balancing act.
Website Update
I have added a new page to this website, its a list of the armies I own and a link to a Google Doc for each of them, listing what I have painted and ready to play with.
Its only partial, I am expanding it slowly as I catalogue what I have and get NFC tags attached to the boxes, which allows me to pull up the lists easily if I want to know what in the boxes.
What I Am Modelling
I started out with the Terminators for the Ultramarines Combat Patrol
It was a much closer match, but I struggled to score in the primary mission because the Necrons are quite slow, I think I really need some transports for them
And finally I went up against the Chaos Space Marines of Ian, and for the first couple of turns it was reasonably equal, and I thought I might stand a chance at a close loss
But losing a couple of my heavy hitters really turned the tide, as the much faster Chaos Space Marines utterly trounced me
So what have I learnt, well the biggest is that my Necrons need transport, so I think I need to invest in some Ghost Arks at some point soon, because I am finding they struggle to get Warriors on to objectives
But regardless of the outcome, I had fun and well, the wooden spoon is what I live for!
On Tuesday I played a game of Age of Sigmar for the start of a local escalation league, with the first games at 750pts
My first game was against Michaels Nighthaunt and oh it went badly, the buffs and rebuffs from his characters just really stopped my Ironjawz from getting enough attacks to hit home and as a result they crumpled pretty easily
Ah it is what it is, but it was none the less a fun game!
What Video Games I Am Playing
Still plodding away at Assassin’s Creed: Unity, starting off by concentrating on collectables and clearing stuff area by area
What I Am Spending
I got some Tempestus Scions to add some of the models I need to get myself to have the new Scions based Kill Team, I need some Tempestors and Scions with Grenade Launchers
Video game wise, I picked up Red Dead Redemption 2 on sale at its lowest ever price on Steam, and Rogue Trader too, based mostly on the recommendation of Graham
We lost our beloved Smokie, he was only with us three months, but that little spicy bean made quite the impression on us.
After Fireworks Night, the stress of all the noises triggered herpes, which 80% of all cats have, it normally lies dormant unless they get very ill or feel a lot of stress.
Unfortunately what we learned was that he suffered from a nasty auto immune disorder which meant that to deal with the herpes, his white blood cells were attacking his entire body.
It quickly destroyed his eyes, leaving him blind and then decimated his red blood cell count. The vets tried their hardest to save him, we cannot fault him.
We had intended to visit my mum the weekend he died, but we decided to stay with him, and I glad we did, he had a nice last day, lots of cuddles, he ate tuna from my stottie, pretty much half of it, and then after a nice meal and some milk, he sat down and, well he let us know it was time.
We drove him round and they agreed that despite all the medication and treatment, there was noting else they could do and the best decision was to let him go.
It was very peaceful, but as you can guess, it was also very painful, the little dude was such a beautiful and wilful boy and he was really starting to come round to us.
We are going to miss him very much and I won’t lie, its left us all feeling pretty crap.
Other Stuff
A few other things happened over the weeks, but I am gonna expand on them later on, I mangled to get a racing wheel for my PC/Xbox which was cool but for the most part its been pretty quiet, we have all just been very sad
I did get my BoardGameGeek Secret Santa delivered, which was the wonderful San Juan, a secondhand copy but that’s cool, Wingspan European Expansion and Ticket to Ride France/Old West.
The Battleground show in Middlesbrough last weekend was great, they hosted us playing a big game of Horus Heresy with many many points aside, the Loyalists had four of my Knights and my Warhound Titan, the Traitors had a fair few Super Heavy tanks and a few knights too
I started off with a pair of Domicile Shells from Stormbringer, these are going to be sorted out in the next few weeks with my current AoS terrain to give me two boxes of terrain, one for the Friday Night Wargames club, and one for my house
After that I painted this pair of Carnodons armed with all Volkite for my Solar Auxilia army, getting close to having everything for Heresy Camp done, vehicle wise.
I also had to do a repair job on this Iron Warriors breacher, in the studio refurb he managed to lose his Bolter and Backpack, so I printed off replacements for him, think I need to do more with this army at some point
Played with my Imperial Fists with some allied Solar Auxiilia against his Word Bearers and it was a close game, came down to the last turn in which if I had killed just three more tactical marines I would have won by 2VP, but alas I lost by 1VP.
I also played a game against Graham at Durham Raiders, and well hell froze over and I beat him 11-8, to be fair my list was a bit tasty and the destruction of his Kytan took out a whole unit of Ursurax, which helped me no end!
And due to the issues with Smokey, and the need to pay his vet bills, I am no longer going to upgrade my PC to AM5, and instead have returned the B650 board and will be ordering a 5700X3D once the refund comes through, but in the meantime, I have bought some Thermal Grizzly Kryonaut in preparation.
No need for any more issues until Issue 20 when I plan to get hopefully a couple of the Chaplain on a Bike, one for the Dark Angels and one for the Blood Angels.
It was Humble Choice week, and this month it bagged me
This week myself and Lindsay were due to visit Suffolk via Nottingham to see my family, cause there is stuff going on down there.
Alas Lindsay came home from Oxford the previous weekend with a horrendous chest infection and sadly as a result, we couldn’t risk the journey, cause there is a vulnerable person there that we couldn’t risk passing it on to.
She ended up ill for 9 days and has only just gone back to work today, anyway, it is what it is, and we plan to go down in a fortnight.
What I Am Modeling
I was going to initially paint some Space Wolves Intercessors, but my Russ Grey was dry as the Arabian dessert!
So I started on some Ultramarines beginning with a Squad of Aggressors, this time with Boltstorm Gauntlets
Followed by a 3D printed Liutenant Titus, cause annoyingly I cannot get the plastic one from Games Workshop, everytime its restocked in the store, I can’t get to them in time. So yeah ended up printing this one!