Farewell 2013

It's been a good hobby year for me. My momentum has been good and I aim to keep it that way.

As far as the Mumblings goes, it keeps shambling along, with over 200 followers and almost 200,0000 page views I guess it's holding it's own. This is but a wee message of new year good wishes to all the patrons of the Mumblings, thank you one and all. I've gotten some very good tips and advice from the various folks who call in from time to time and I hope some of what I've committed to the internet has been of use or provided some entertainment.

There are some very exciting projects on the table for next year and I hope you'll pop in to observe me banging on about whatever the hell I like to whoever happens to read it.

Happy new year to all you excellent people.

Sigmar's Blood - A New Way for Warhammer?

 

For one of my last posts of 2013, I thought some mulling on the possible directions for Warhammer Fantasy might be in order. There have been some definite deviations lately from the strict rulebook and army book combo that has been the norm over the last few years, and this might have some clues as to the way things might be going in 2014 and beyond.

I received a copy of Sigmar's Blood as a Christmas present, and I have to say I am enjoying reading through it. There's a lot of background, in fact most of the book is just that, which, to be honest I have no problem with. In fact, I have been following the relatively recent exploits of Mannfred Von Carstein with much interest. His resurrection and endeavours thereafter have been spread out through various army books and short stories over the last few years, gathering some pace over the last year or so. It's nice to see characters and events in the Warhammer world moving forward.

There are similarities between this book and the direct only Codex such as Iyanden, Black Legion and so on insofar as they are mostly background. I don't play 40k currently, and I'll never collect eldar, but I enjoyed the Iyanden codex immensely for the background focus on that craftworld. I'm hoping there are more Warhammer Fantasy books like this in the offing.

I noticed the forces for each battle in Sigmar's Blood are termed as battle scrolls, the same as the advent calendar releases that can be taken in a regular army. I've not read the whole thing, so I don't know if I could take say, Ghorst's night stalkers in an ordinary game, but I must say the battle scrolls released over Christmas are a new direction for GW. They are official, so can be taken in a regular game, unlike scrolls of binding. Could we see a return to a less stringent game? New official rules in campaign books, white dwarf or via more digital releases? A headache for tournament organisers for sure, who up to now only have to deal with the rulebook and army books and all the associated FAQ. I can see controversy over the new battle scrolls in upcoming tournaments.

Personally I would love to see the game move in this direction, it would be wonderful to have a new rule or unit coming out each month to shake up the killer lists and armies. Hard to balance, sure, but then it's hardly a perfect game right now. Players and tournament organisers will always find a way to iron out the crinkles. I'd love  to see more models and rules for armies outside of the army book releases. How great would it be to see a new, say, vampire counts unit or regiment of renown just crop up in White Dwarf? Perhaps fantasy book releases comparable to the supplementary codex for 40k we're seeing focusing in on one specific force. Slayer army anyone? Slaaneshi dark elves? The undead of Nagash? A Nuln Empire contingent? It could be very exciting.

9th edition could hold quite a few surprises.

Metal Beards - Steampunk Style Dwarf Army Kickstarter

Titan Forge have launched a new kickstarter to fund their steampunk style dwarf army. It's already full past funded with 30 days to go. Titan Forge have done some great stuff in the past, the Drakskull Menace undead orc and Bloodsail Island ogre ranges, both of which are excellent.

This particular range looks really good. Essentially a mechanical dwarf army with the addition of giant golems and such. Where the interest really lies for me is the additions of 'evil dwarf' versions of the army, including mechanical cavalry and hopefully monstrous infantry size versions of the larger dwarf mechanicals. While I have an idea what I'd like to use for fireborn in my chaos dwarf army, these guys have piqued my interest something fierce.

So, with the rumours of the new dwarf book's upcoming release getting more certain, it would be a good time to give this a look.

2013 Hobby Recap

The year is fading fast now, just a few more days to the Christmas. Before things get too mental I thought I would throw a look back over my shoulder at what I've done over the year.

I spent the first few months of the year finishing my unit of half dead for my fimir. I really, really enjoyed building and painting these guys. In between finishing the half dead, I started on my unit of marlwyms. I've been pretty monkish about getting the fimir ready for battle, which is hard going at my pace, which is not speedy. It's been pretty tough keeping on track with a plethora of new projects tempting me to deviate from my divine mission to bring one-eyed pseudo Celtic cyclopean doom back to the gaming table.

Once the bog zombies were done, it was full speed into the marlwyrms. To date there are three finished. I still have the unit champion to add, and the movement tray. It's a big movement tray. So much bog/moss/heather/rocks to paint.

Another model I finished was Crom, my first fimir daemon ally. All the daemons in the army are either daemons of Fimul, who are generally worm type beasties, or those who owe fealty to Fimul in some way. This model (and the marlwyrms, to a lesser extent) gave me my first chance to really experiment with drool and slime effects. After some false starts I found a great glue that had the right properties. I still need to perfect a method of applying the glue, but I'll have a lot more opportunity for that before the army is finished.

As September, and NWG (the deadline I had set myself for 2000 points) rapidly approached, I finished one of the smaller units, some warhounds. I say finished, but I still need to add a handler to the unit. I'll swap out one of the hounds and add a handler and hound, both on 25x25mm bases to fill the space left by the 25x50mm cavalry base.

At NWG I unveiled the army and was delighted to pick up best painted. I had been painting feverishly for the few weeks coming up to it, and so October was a bit light on hobby, with only a single movement tray rolling out of the hobby factory.

Once I got my mojo back, I took stock and decided to finish off any units that needed finishing. The last marlwyrm, hound handlers and some bases and trays. That's where I am now. I've built a larger base for Crom so he can masquerade as a hellcannon, and my latest endeavour, which has mutated utterly from it's initial function, was a base extender for my meargh so she can have a 50x50mm or 40x40mm base. This has changed so much it's now an entirely new character, a dirach on a floating stone plinth. He's magnetised so he can sit on the plinth or a 25x25mm base. This is my first real excursion into using magnets, and it's going well so far. He still needs his tail, arm and other wee bits added, but he's getting there. I'll also add a familiar and some other scrolls and such to the plinth, partly to disguise the join, but mostly for the hell of it.

Once this bit of army housekeeping is done, the next objective is to get the army to 2,500 points. A unit of fenbeasts led by a dirach, an athach (huge tunnelling Earth daemon), a unit of fianna fimm, nobles, there's a lot of options. I really want to get the army to the point where I can have some variety in lists, which brings me onto what I'll be doing in 2014. First and foremost I'll be getting the fimir army to a size where I can happily field different lists. After that, well, there's a lot to choose from...

Crack into the chaos dwarves?

Finish off the vampire counts?

Get that  Bloodbowl team off the blocks?

Welly into the cult?

Paint some Nurgle Renegades? (This isn't one of mine, sadly.)

I'm actively collecting bits and pieces for the cult. I've a fairly definite idea of what I want*, and I'm also waiting to see if Games Workshop release a cult supplement for the upcoming tyranid release.  That would be glorious.
*may not be true.

Then, of course, there's stuff coming down the line for 2014.

All Quiet on the Martian Front. I cannot wait for this to be released.

Mantic's Mars Attacks

Hmm. Definite Martian flavour to 2014. I feel a rising sense of panic looking at all the stuff I'd like to devote my time to. If I could grow several extra arms, give up all contact with the world, oh, and lose the need for sleep, I'd still not have enough time to do it all.

Still, it's fun trying, eh?

Fimir - Dirach Grunsgul, Update 1

Since I decided that my floating rock plinth needed a dedicated rider, I thought I'd use the the opportunity to build a human size dirach. I don't want him stuck on the plinth, so I'm going to magnetise him to it, and make another magnetized 25x25mm base for him should I want to field him on foot. This comes of the back of some salient advice from the various forums. Indeed, the idea for the model to use as a dirach came from Chico of Oldhammer on a Budget, who is a bit of a fimir fan as well.

As you can see, I've converted the head to make him a bit more dirachy. It's a really characterful head, and it suits the horns which serve to lengthen the face even more. I may convert the tail too, as dirach have smooth tails. (It does dawn on me that most folks won't know what the hell a dirach even is, let alone what kind of tail he has, or why I needed to add horns. Just go with it. It'll be grand.)

He's going to have a familiar on the plinth with him, a scroll carrier to help the ageing fimir remember his spells. I can feel a back story coalescing already. Anyhow, I'm going to use this little fella, who has been sitting in a box for years awaiting some attention.

I'll probably add a little paraphernalia to the plinth too, some scrolls and such to add a little more detail. To think this all started out as a base extender...

Fimir - Floating Altar

At the moment I'm still very much in the process of tidying up some loose ends with the fimir before I launch into any new units. One of the things I wanted to do was to make a small base extender for my meargh so she could be mounted on a 40x40mm base or a 50x50mm depending on how I was going to field her. Just a wee base add-on I said to myself. Texture the edge to match her 40x40mm base, paint it up, and done.

This is what I ended up with.

As you can see, the idea expanded a bit. Still some water effects to go on, but other than that, done. When I was digging through my bits box looking for interesting little bits for it, I thought hey, why don't I make it into more of a floating slab of rock magically torn from the bog. Then I could use it to give the meargh some height when she's pretending to be a daemon prince, or I could even magnetise the top so I could put other fimir characters there if I needed a disk rider. So that's the way it went.

 I was looking at it last night thinking while it's pretty versatile, does the base sitting on the stone look a bit weird? I've looked at it so much now I can't tell anymore. The other thing is the magnetic steel holds the magnetised base down well, but it's not going to take a major jostle. I have visions of my meargh taking an undignified tumble mid-game.

One thing I am thinking of is to just add a permanent rider to the plinth. A dirach, possibly. Then I could add some paraphernalia to the rock, a familiar, spell book or some other bits. The familiar would be especially appropriate for a dirach. Here's the model I'd be thinking of using, from Oakbound games. He'd need a little conversion, some horns and perhaps a weapon, but other than that he's pretty much bang on. His pose would work well as a rider.

I'd then work up the original base extender for the meargh, and lo, I'd have the meargh and a new mounted character.

Or, maybe I'm just making work for myself.

Oakbound Games - Marsh Demons

The weekend before last a fellow oldhammerer (Just John) handed me a package of miniatures from a new company, Oakbound Games.  My interest was considerable as the first range to be released from Oakbound are their marsh daemons, who bear more than a passing resemblance to my personal obsession, the fimir. You can get more information here.

They are the first range for an upcoming roleplay system called The Woods, an open source RPG available from next year as free downloads. More on that here.With more than a nod to the aesthetic of films like the Dark Crystal, these sculpts appealed to me at once. I picked up the majority of the range, and once I had them in my grubby paws I assembled them with some blu-tack to get an idea of scale, and what manner of use I will put them to in various units. You can see some here next to an old school fianna fimm on the far right.

The models range in size, some are the equivalent of the larger fimm and could easily be mounted on 40x40 millimetre bases. Others are quite comfy on 25x25 bases. This suits me perfectly. They come without weapons, which can be ordered separately, but I plan on converting up my own, probably bases on chaos/ogre weapons. There is some minor flash on the figures, but overall they are very clean sculpts. They don't have the wealth of detail of the Forge World fimir, but they do have a ton of character and hey, fimir command models, what's not to love?

This brings me onto my 2 favourite models. First and foremost is this fimm piper. I just goddam love this model. I love it. A fimm bagpiper is an inspired notion. He'll be going in the next unit that needs a musician, probably my second fimm unit.

The other fellow is the standard bearer. He looks like a gnarly, veteran, somewhat cranky fimm, and as I'm in the market for a battle standard bearer, he's just what I'm after. All respect to Geoff Sims, the man behind Oakbound, and the very fine Fimm McCool's Games Orkshop blog, but I'll most likely convert him with a much larger banner. He's top of the list as soon as I finish what I'm working on at the moment.

The other models I picked up were a Tiarna (hero), two clubtails (fimm/fianna fimm) and a thrall (shearl). The thrall is quite small and would make a good juvenile fimir or young shearl. There's also a mystery figure, which turns out to be a kelpie. It's a creeepy mini.

All in all a very nice wee range that I'd recommend to anyone interested in the fimir, or just some different and interesting models to add to their collection.