Thousand Sons Rhinos- Ride Wit Me!

Hello again, time for some troop transports. I’ve made a start with some rhinos, why rhinos? Well I started doing Horus Heresy before there were any rules and just a few legion armour kits, these were one of the things I bought for my original matt red Thousand Sons. So, ever resourceful, I respected them and started with the Prosperan Ruby method I’ve used in everything else.

Two rides for two psychic ammo rota gun squads

The colour scheme is copied from Horus Heresy book VII for the keen eyed. I plan to use these as a ride for my rota gun support squads, or other more specialised units as my tactical marines will be in landraiders as that what the background says and I think the Heresy is all about the background.

Mad complex colour scheme ahoy!

Again transfers all over the show and gold lining around various panels as Thousand Sons bring the bling.

On to Heresy

In this article I want to talk about Horus Heresy collecting, painting and gaming to be more accurate.

VIII Legion: In Midnight Clad – My own thoughts about the Sons of the sunless world.

My favourites by far, The Night Lords are the epitome of the “Bad Guys”. Not rabid madmen, not zealous hierophants or even embittered turncoats. No, the Night Lords to me are a far more malevolent force.

In midnight clad brothers!

The Night Lords see themselves as a necessary evil, the Imperium in its infancy needed rules and laws. They represent the iron hard law, the simple black and white, right and wrong. Later this message would become corrupted by their own Primarch and his new recruits from the Night World Nostramo.

Always look on the bright side of life...

Before this new rot set in though they were successful Legion, bringing worlds to compliance and expanding the Imperium. Even when Konrad was installed as their Lord they still adhered to the letter of the Law. Knorad was the ultimate arbiter of law, he and his Legion were soon surrounded with tales of pure terror and slaughter.

Konrad, a most unpleasant fellow

For Kornad knew that fear held society together, don’t steal or you will go to jail, don’t kill or you will be yourself killed, fear or retribution is the crux of society. These rules have existed broadly one way or another throughout human history and Konrad took them to the extreme.

Scary. Legion Contemptor Dreadnought

One of the best aspects of the Night Lords is they enjoy their work, many other Legions labour along under the banner of duty or loyalty or listen to the whims of the mad gods. Whereas the VIII Legion simply enjoys the suffering they bring, the simple joy of battle and seeing their foes fleeing in terror. 

Death to the False Emperor - Sevetar VIII Legion

Next time I will be covering building and Painting some VIII Legion.

Kosh’eth tay

Daveco

Using media in your games

Hey everyone,

Abe here again.

So I grew up in the 90's and I was reminiscing about how I got into the hobby and I remembered playing my first game of Warhammer in a friends attic, that's right we rebelled against the basement dweller stereotype by going to the highest room of the house. Then I thought about it somemore and realised my trip down the rabbit hole started even earlier.

You're probably going to need a pair of these for this part of the article

It all started with a little game called Atmosfear, a 1991 board game and the best thing to happen to VHS tapes since those boxes that were meant to look like leather bound books. For those of you who never played it, firstly I'm so sorry your parents never loved you and secondly it was a fairly straight forward board game where you collected six coloured pieces and then had to face the Gatekeeper within a set time, failure to do this resulted in failure for all players. What really set this game apart was the video tape that came with it and forced you to try and interact with your TV as if it was a real person.

I spent more time with this guy than my own father in the 90's

 This is the first time I can clearly remember the use of new media in gaming and it has made me think of my own disastourous forays into using other media in my games. I shall recount these for you know so you may avoid making the same mistakes I did.

Literature 
Everyone who has ever played a game owes a debt of gratitude to a writer with a relativly small collection of work, who changed the face of the fantasy genre and with the middle initals  R.R.

Ha tricked you!

I refer of course to J R R Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy and pipe enthusiast. Every gamer at some point has lifted characters, places, even whole plots from him at some point and without him we probably wouldn't have much of a hobby. The problems arise from this however when you decide to make a character that you will describe to the rest of your gaming group as "Like, Legolas but much cooler and better with a bow and I'll call him Salogel." Then for your first action you try and surf down a flight of stairs firing your bow, and instead you roll a natural one fall down, break your neck and land in the brazier. I understand completely why this happens to a young gamer and luckily we mostly grow out of this behaviour quick.

Still not the most ridiculous thing he's done in these films

 Music
Who doesn't love music, how many brilliant scenes in our favourite movies been perfectly complimented by just the right song. Unfortunately I, like many of you out there, have tried to emulate this. I have spent hour's making the right playlist choosing songs that fit the theme and would spice up our gaming sessions. Unfortunately life never runs as smoothly as a movie and the action never quite syncs up with what your players are doing. A fight is about to break out in the game and you press play and a perfectly chosen rock song blares out and your friends decide now is the time to have a five minute discussion on the rules regarding eye stabbing a minor guard. By the time they are ready to get back to the game the next track "Tavern Intrigue" has already started and you turn it off in despair. Or you are ready to reveal the villain of the piece, a Machiavellian being who has manipulated the heroes from the start and you press play expecting Sympathy for the Devil by the Rolling Stones and instead you get Amish Paradise by Weird Al instead and your whole game is ruined.

Now I am become death, destroyer of worlds!

Video 
This isn't something I have ever tried to incorporate into my own games, even I'm not that insufferable. However, I will leave you with some of the problems I remember from Atmosfear, I can remember playing the game with my family for the first time. My father, as head of the household and therefore grand high arbiter of the remote decided to play a game and almost immediately the problems became apparent. Pausing at the right time became an issue with my father regularly hitting pause, stop and every other button but the right one. Despite this I still have a deep and abiding love for this game and its spiritual successors like XCOM, but please never try and do it yourself, only heartbreak lies that way.

I love you too dad.

 

My Section 8 Story

A Quick Backstory Early 2016 was not a good time for me. The first few mouths was nothing but bad thoughts and self-hatred, as well as a complete unwillingness to be around my fellow humans. So how did this I get past such a difficult time? Well among various relaxation techniques and opening myself to new ideas, I found a great new hobby.

The mighty Section 8 Club Logo

 As much as I loved (and still love) the models of games workshop, I wanted to try something new, something I have had a fondness of since I was young; historical models. History is my main passion, an obsessive love I have always carried since I was a child. In august of 2016 I bought a box of Perry Miniatures’ American Civil War cavalry. Now while they were not my finest work, I still enjoyed this great little experiment. When I was at the store where I bought these models, I noticed a flyer for an event- Border Reiver. I was intrigued by this event so a few weeks later in September I went to it along with my Father and a friend. There I met Daveco, whom I'd met before at our local GW. He told me of this great place, a club named “Section 8” that he helped run. Meanwhile at my college course, one of my lecturers told me about a great game called Bolt Action. A game set in WWII, which interested me a lot, so taking the plunge, I got the Russian 500pts army deal that Warlord offered on their site and got to work building and painting a brand new army.

Ordering my SS to stage an ambush behind the farmhouse

 It was my experiences at section 8 I credit with making me a more socially aware person and helped me improve my skills at painting. I shall now list the advantages of this club has well as give some of my own personal insight The advantages The hobby side-This is probably one of the more obvious advantages of going to a club like Section 8. When I first went to the club I was decent at painting sure, but compared to many at the club I wasn’t very good. So how did I improve? Well that was thanks to Stonedrose who is also a very skilled painter. I have started to use Vallejo paints as well as Citadel’s range to diversify my colours. I also became better at painting skin, adding shadow effects to lines within the face. It helped me steady my hand, which is great for any painter to learn (while my hand does still shake, I know better ways to control it). While I could go on all day about the techniques I've learnt I shall list just one more, and that is basing. I never really used to bother with putting sand, paint and grass (among other things) on my bases but now, I do, putting a lot of work into making them look good (even if they can be overly tedious at times). 

 The social aspect

So what makes a good club? Well honestly I would say that the answer would be the community built around said club. Autistic people like myself are often stereotyped as being socially unaware and being bad around their peers. While this stereotype does not always apply to everyone who is autistic, it almost certainly applied to pre-club me. I was often scared off by adult conversations due to my own strongly held values. And yet thanks to the club my tolerance levels for things I once saw as “annoying” or “uncivilized” have increased drastically. While of course the therapy I have received helped with this but what really helped was the club. I love the people at the club for while they can sometimes act the fool they do it in a comedic context and well getting used to such humour is an important part of growing up. Heck, I feel that it has helped me get ready to eventually enter the world of work once my college studies are over. Wargames including myself can be eccentric at times but they are like a second family for me, and they are all good people. 

Membership

One of the problem the North East has is money. In our current society, money, an artificial price that has no basis in nature, faith or evolution, dictates how we live our lives. Yeah it is pretty sad but why does it matter to the club? Well that is because with membership a whole afternoon and most of an evening of fun could be yours for just £2.50. What more could you want? After all the cinema is £10 for 2-3 hours... 

Terrain

What is the advantage of playing at a club compared to say doing something at home or going to a local store? Well at home you may not have all of the things you need to make a convincing battle (after all there’s not a lot of buildings that are shaped like coke cans!) while at a store, well you might end up spending money that you previously had no intention of buying, for that is a major peril hobbyists must deal with. Meanwhile at Section 8 we have a ton of terrain you can use; whole boxes in fact! Everything from 40k ruins to Northern European homesteads as well as the general stuff like hills and trenches. All fully based and painted with matching gaming mats. 

The Games

We play a lot of things at the club including games such as Horus Heresy, 40k, Bolt Action, Blitzkrieg Commander, Warmachine and so much more. The game I currently play at the club is Bolt Action, for which I have a large and ever expanding collection of soldiers from the Soviet Red Army and the German Waffen SS, with a whole number of ideas for secondary armies to eventually get my hands on. One great advantage of playing here is the lack of “powergamers”. While there is one or two people who swing that way, most here build armies that are more about exploring historical/loreful events or just to have fun. And if these games do not tickle your fancy? Well we have plenty of board games you can try your hand at to, games that I think my peers are likely to share with you in other articles on this great blog.

This is a contributory article from a Section 8 member, pseudonym TBA

Logar

I’ve just finished the latest Primarchs novel- Lorgar. I intend to do a quick review and not give any spoilers away, however, one thing that I really enjoyed is that Colichis is part religious cult world and part-

Witness me!!!!

Yup, there’s a load of guys going round the desert between cities on various vehicles and a great big motorised pulpit. So it feels a bit Mad Max, but is this ever bad? Well yeah but only if you like your chaps to cover your backside...

I enjoyed this novel, it delves into Lorgars past as you would expect, but it tries to explain why he’s different and a lot more subservient than the other Primarchs. It also reveals a lot about Kor Phaeron, who’s always been quite a complex character. It also leaves a bit of mystery towards the end, so all in all a good read. 

I really enjoyed the desert wandering though but I can’t get the image out of my head of Lorgar leading the guys out of fury road around from his giant pulpit mobile.

Overall 8/10

Back to Bloodbowl

Of all GW games, Section 8 loves Blood Bowl. I think we must've held at least 5 tournaments over the years, the largest with around 25 teams. So, understandably when it was re-released everyone was very excited, the models were great, the contents of the gamebox were pretty plush. However, it didn't really take off for us, difficult to know why. I realise the release schedule has been tortuous, there just aren't enough teams out for variety. However, our members have teams from countries all around the world, of all different races, so maybe this shouldn't matter. However, it didn't take off again in the way we expected. Maybe now is the time, Abenormal has a skaven team painted up and it's near Christmas, a good time for people to pick up a team. Also, the Elves can't be far away and they're cracking figures, so I thought I'd do a practice run on the boxed set Human Team. I decided to do a test figure and paint him in the colours of a previous team, a red and yellow combo, a bit "Howling Griffons". Anyway, one test figure turned into one test figure of each position and soon I had four players finished, so here we go:

Here’s the thrower, always number #1 as he’s like a quarterback 

Here's a catcher, #9 as he scores the touchdowns like a striker, numbers were applied from the transfer sheet in the box, I went for black as it shows up on the yellow 

       Test Lineman, the least glamorous of players 

Blitzer, I always number these like centre halves, as they make all the crunching tackles 

 So, I'll try and get the team finished over a couple of weeks, eight more players to go but I could really do with some extra positionals, two blitzers, two catchers and maybe an ogre. There are no extra players out yet so I'll need to get another plastic team from somewhere. I'm really pleased with how these came out, I used a modified version of the guide in the back of the bloodbowl rules, but I used quite a few edging paints in with what was suggested to make them really bling. I fell this helps in a skirmish or team game where there aren't load of figures. So hopefully we'll see some more bloodbowl over the coming weeks, I'm off to Nottingham on 11th November so I'm going to Warhammer World with the intent of getting a neoprene pitch and maybe the elf team if it's out in time.

Abenormals Salamanders

Hello everyone,

I'm Abenormal, Abe for short, or Mr. Normal if you're nasty (also well done to the 3 of you who got that reference.)

I've been a member of Section 8 gaming club for many years now and play a wide variety of games, but more on that later.

As a quick introduction of myself I thought I would put some pictures up of my Salamanders army for heresy.

My Praetor

 As you can see neither painting, nor photography are my strong suits and I will be the first to admit I did not push my self with this army. I am just about to start my next heresy army and I will be looking to improve my technique but again, I digress.

praetor with his command squad.
Feel free to add your own Resivoir Dogs soundtrack.

I went pretty heavily with the scaled cloak with this army with most important models getting one to make them stand out. I feel that finding someway of personalising your army is an important element to add.

This was one of the first models I ever patined for this army and I was always happy with the results. Anyway, I shall be posted more articles on here periodically, enjoy.

Small yet Mighty!

Most of the posts on this Blog will cover the broad aspects of games, painting and collecting. People who follow it will have seen some of the models we have. But these models and the games they are used in depict only tiny snippet or window into that world. A large game, let us make an example of Horus Heresy (a game best suited to large battles from the dawn of the Imperium) might have a 100+ models and a good handful of tanks. It stirs the soul for us Wargamers when we see two lovingly painted forces clash on themed terrain. When you play those games, you can well imagine yourself as a fearless hero leading your forces to battle. In Horus Heresy and even Historical games like Bolt Action.

But You can have more…

This article will be about even bigger games again. Now not all of us can afford a football pitch sized table and fighter command Battle of Britain style move sticks to shuffle the forces around. Enter the 10mm Wargame! Most of the Games we play are around the 28mm size (Heroic scale or 1/54 scale) 10mm Scale is a different monster. Many of you will remember Epic and Warmaster, it's this style of games I am talking about today!

This is my late war American Army. Left to right  (Models on small round bases are Recce units and are a mix of M5 Stuart Tanks, M8 Greyhounds and Willis Jeeps) Models on square bases are HQs and or Artillery.

Top: M26 Pershing Tank Company, Sherman Tank Battalion (including 76mm, 75mm and 105mm Sherman variants) 2nd Sherman Tank Battalion (same as first) Anti-Tank Battalion (M10s and M18s with a fully company of 76mm Anti-tank guns and 2 Artillery Companies (x1 with Priest SPGs and x1 with 105mm guns with trucks).

Middle: Mechanised Regiment (x3 Battalions mounted in Trucks and Halftraks). Engineering Battalion

Bottom: Old Blood and Guts Patton himself! Then an Infantry Regiment (x3 over strength battalions)

I have a Japanese army for Bolt Action. That roughly represents two re-enforced platoons form a WWII Japanese army. But for my 10mm Forces I have quite a bit more. When you shrink the scale, you increase the numbers. When you play 10mm games (sometimes called “Grand Scale”) you become more than a front-line commander, you are elevated to an Army Commander! Rather than a dashing and heroic Captain or Lieutenant on a horse at the battle of Waterloo you become Wellington himself. Imagine the film Saving Private Ryan, that for my example is Bolt Action – Squads of soldiers in a desperate battle to survive and achieve their objectives. Now one of my Favourite games is Blitzkrieg Commander - this is like the film The Longest Day. In this game you don’t have time for squads and individual actions, you are too busy fighting the entire D-Day invasion!

Blitzkrieg Commander is a very clever game that borrows from Warmaster and a few other Grand Scale games. It covers all WWII periods and the vast majority of the Forces too. Your army centres around a Commanding Officer (CO) and a number of Headquarters Units (HQ) they in turn are responsible for commanding your forces. Each CO or HQ has a command Value, that determines how effective they are at commanding the forces attached to them.

Quick Example; Each HQ is in Command of a Battalion of Infantry. In that Battalion might be nine platoons of Soldiers accompanied by machine gun, anti-tank, mortar and recon platoons. Then you may have two more battalions of soldiers. Let’s not leave out the support, maybe you could have a tank battalion or two (also needing an HQ) and why not throw in some artillery and air support. 

Oh... you have a Tiger Platoon? Well I have a Tank Regiment!

Sherman Tank Battalion, with HQ (Stuart Command Tank) on a square base and Recce (M5 Stuart Light Tank) On round base

 Blood and Guts Patton, Take care he will slap any privates not up for the job!

Now you don’t just fight a one of the many battles on D-Day, you fight THE battle of D-Day. 

Small scale yet Mighty Games!

All of the Models shown are from Pendraken Miniatures with the Exception of the x3 M26 Pershing Tanks, that are from Pithead miniatures.

Painting Spaces - DAVECO

Painting Spaces – DAVECO 

Like Stonedrose I am lucky to have a room dedicated to painting. Though as you see mine is a little more anarchic than his. I have a DAVECO original art work at the back of my painting desk. Not as epic as the wolf king but it changes every time I use the airbrush.

Daylight lamps. Get them! It will make things better!

I tend to keep all of the colours and stuff I use the most out near to me and hoard other stuff packed manically away in a semblance of order. That said if there is a thing needed or a bit to be found, in our group its normally me who has it.

The Legendary DAVECO stash of bits!

I too am a Hobby butterfly, jumping from thing to thing. BUT once I get a good project I can be a little obsessed by it, a good example is my Horus Heresy Deathguard Army. Painted a small Allied force for my Night Lords (more on them coming soon).

They were a totally different painting challenge and just over a year later… well… massive Deathguard Army.

Actually this photo is little out of date, I have one more Leviathan Dreadnought and some Vorax Battle Automata to add.

When painting I do enjoy some music or an audio-book, even a film on in the background just to fill in.

When do I paint? Well normally an hour or two after work then a good long blast on a Saturday. Sunday is taken up by the Club, that you can naturally paint at as we have a nice little painting table.

And that’s it in all honesty, if you want to have huge well painted forces you have to put the graft in.