Some DeepWars news

It's been a very busy week and weekend, so I haven't managed to find much hobby time. Though I have managed to put all my new DeepWars minis together, taking care of the occasional issue like gaps. Hopefully I can find the time to do some painting in the coming days, tough to choose where to starter though with all these cool miniatures.

And those interested the expansion Kickstarter for DeepWars (link) is doing quite well, with a range of new minis already unlocked. For the Dark Mariners we have the Vanguard Captain and the gruesome Deepspawn Reaver. Both of these minis have the amphibious rules, so they'll eventually be useful for Shadowsea as well.

 The Fortune Hunters also get a personality character and an extra grunt to help fill out the roster. The Mad Inventor can come in quite handy during breaching missions, though he is somewhat unstable. The Templar Shadow Slayer, on the other hand, is the weapon of choice when facing heavy magics.

There are a whole lot of other minis, rewards and extras that can still be unlocked. So if you're interested in the game or minis, have a look and help Antimatter Games in their continued development of a great game! Click HERE for the full list of remaining unlockable characters, think I may be in love with the Chrysalid  ;-)

Taking the plunge!

Time for something a little different from my usual scifi, 40K antics, time for an entirely different game and rule system in fact. Been feeling I needed a change in game for quite a while now and with the arrival of a few new minis this last week I'm about ready t dive (pun intended) into the DeepWars game, set in the ShadowSea universe (which uses a variant on the Song of Blades ruleset).

Simply put I'm getting started on a few small war bands in a new skirmish game. I'd been a big fan of Antimatter Games for year, but never seemed to find the time to actually get into their games. So the Kickstarter project earlier this year was the perfect moment to give it a go.

DeepWars is a 28mm scale tabletop wargame set in an alternate history of Earth in the late 17th century, where fortune seekers and conquerors have discovered a lost land with an underground sea miles beneath the frozen surface of the southernmost continent. It's a game of explorating wrecks on the seafloor, adventures in ancient cities of cyclopean structures, battles among fields of geothermal chimneys, submarine boardings among others. Adventures within flooded tunnels inside wrecked ships or crumbing cities may be played with “tiles” to represent stretches of passage and chambers, while games in open environments are played with scenic terrain pieces on the tabletop.

Tons of very cool rule concepts and loads of customization in the rule set in general as well. Managed to find a little bit of time this last week to fiddle with the minis, slowly putting together all the cool goodies that arrived this last week. The detailing on the minis, and lack of flash/mold lines definitely makes things quite easy to clean up:


What I really like about all the minis is the sense of movement that is conveyed in the various poses. The cool thing, in my opinion anyway, is that the poses also help to capture the feel suitable for the respective factions. The Ancients, for example, are agile, bordering on elegant, while the Fortune Hunters, though certainly well-equipped, don't look all that comfortable walking around on the bottom of the ocean floor.

Really looking forward to working on the following minis as well, the Gark in particular just scream for attention:



It's not all DeepWars over here, also started work on two of my favorite ShadowSea minis:

More on these somewhere next week!

The goodies from the Kickstarter are slowly coming in, but I was particularly suprized to see the extra characters released so fast. So the basic war bands are getting reinforcements before I even managed to put all those lovely minis together.

For the Ancient Mariners we have the Vanguard Heavy Support Marine, which is quite a sizable mini, and the lovely Siren of the Deep:

The Fortune Hunters got support in the form of the of very pose-able Silent Soldier and the Sea Dog:

While for the Ancients the Elite Soldier and Xicana joined the party:

Especially with the addition of the new minis I've completely lost track which faction I'd consider my favorite, they're all interesting and fun at this point! After some quick searching in my bits boxes I even found some marine life to add to a base here or there. The fishes, I believe, are from Mordheim villagers, while the turtle came from Black Cat Bases. I did end up getting a double set of upper bodies for the Siren of the Deep. I'm certain I can find a use for it eventually:

And a nice groupshot to finish off the first post in quite a while now:


p.s. - for those interested in the minis, Antimatter Games is also offering them at a discount through their new ShadowSea kickstarter here  - link.

$3426 Black Crusade Charity

Looks like we've done quite well for the Charity drive, and there's also a winner for the grand army now (link). Looks like the Decimator and Rubric Marines will be on their way to the US in a couple of days, officially marking the end of this project. So time for some extra pics, while I can still take them


Forge World Decimator:






Thousand Sons squad, with Icon so they can also be fielded as regular Chaos Space Marines:




My favorite Rubric Marine, this guy just screams, silently of course, the Slow & Purposeful-rule:


And the Standard Bearer and Sorcerer doing some sinister summoning next to the extra Objective Marker I've added to the lot:


And, finally, the entire group temporarily in my display case till I get the necessary shipping details to get them send out to the lucky winner:


For those interested, there are also quite a few pics up on the Charity site of the other squads and characters, with hopefully more coming if they show up on the gaming tables!

Black Crusade Charity - all done!

It has been quite a journey, but I've managed to pull off finishing my contribution to the Black Crusade Charity (link) just in time:

 You're looking at a ten-men strong Thousand Sons squad, joined by a rather heavily modified Forge World Decimator. The latter was quite a challenge in the end. The model comes in quite a few loose parts, and particularly the legs needed a lot of extra strengthening and pinning to ensure the model would stand the test of time. The end result was worth all the hassle though, the sheer size is enough to intimidate any opponent out there. The Forge World pics really don't show off just how big this model truly is!

Here's two extra shots with a closer look at the Rubrics, the Sorcerer and the Standard Bearer. Now I know that Thousand Sons normally do not carry an Icon about, but the model was a blast to make, adds an extra dimension to the unit, and allows the unit to be fielded as more than just a Thousand Sons squad. Flexibility is key after all.

As you may have noticed there's a little something missing. Unfortunately it's not all good news, the poor cyclopean Chaos Rhino has had a run-in with a rather hungry cat (long, long story). Simply put a friend's cat got its paws on the Rhino while it was in the midst of basecoating, leaving pretty much nothing salvageable. All that was left in one piece were a few pieces of track and the smokey shrine that was attached to the top. If I didn't knew any better I'd even say the little fiend was laughing at me afterwards.........evil kitty!

 Unfortunately I wasn't able to get my hands on a replacement on such short notice, though luckily the grand army seems to be getting a fair share of armoured support from the various other contributors. So if the lucky winner decides to wield these guys in a more mobile role, there won't be a shortage of vehicles to choose from.

On the plus side I did manage to save the alter. And, after some rather extensive green stuffing, it makes for a rather fun, little objective marker that will be painted up tomorrow evening.

 In the end I think that, between Lamenter (link) who was kind enough to make a Tzeentch character, and myself, the forces of Tzeentch have their fair share of influence in this most charitable of Black Crusades. And I naturally want to thank Lamenter for putting together such a great character, as well as the many details he managed to squeeze into the colourscheme. It really made for a good challenge for me, and I think the scheme is quite a strong on.

Picture courtesy of Lamenter

 In one of my future posts I'll have a final look back at this mini project, showing some extra pictures as well as some more detailed info on which bits went into creating the Thousand Sons. Which just leaves one, final, and slightly clumsily copy/pasted message:

  

Black Crusade Charity - part V

As most of you have probably seen, the Black Crusade Charity has officially been extended for a couple of weeks. Cue an little something extra from me for the grand army - one, converted Forge World Decimator:

 Mind, the litte guy is still in the midst of being build, but I am rather happy with the menacing pose thus far. One thing I can say though, is that the Decimator is an amazing, yet difficult kit to put together. There are just so many separate, not entirely fitting, parts in the legs that I've had to pin and strengthen each and every joint on this mini. Though it did take most of the afternoon sorting this out, the extra support will ensure that the model will survive transport and the test of time.

 Design wise I deviated a tad from the basic Decimator design, not in the least as adding horns to the head to make it fit in with the rest of Tzeentch units means the heads needed to be moved forward. The shoulderpads are just too bulky to work with pretty much any other shape of helmet. On the plus side, it has worked out quite well for the feel of the model.

 Secondly I put together some unique arms, both as I really do not like the Forge World options and because adding an organic element would link the Decimator quite nicely with Lamenter's Tzeentch character for the army (link). Adding both a wicked looking arm and gatling type of weapon will also enable the army's winner to field the Decimator in a wide range of manners as both arms could easily count as most of the available weaponry (rules pdf).

 Tomorrow evening I hope to sort out the final details on the mini, which include:
- Bulking out the neck segment:
- Properly attach the right arm to the elbow joint:
- Add some extra barding to gatling gun/arm:
- Fill a few remaining gaps and holes.

Finally a quick detail shot of the Decimator's chest crest, which takes the place of the original neck joint. Some of you may recognize this shield, that's right it is oop Acheaon, Lord of the End Times', shield. Makes for a nice solution for that gaping hole and is a nice Black Legion reference while we're at it.

And that does it for the fifth Black Crusade Charity update already. Next time I'd better get busy on painting, that deadline is creeping closer and closer!

Black Crusade Charity - part IV

Looks like it is official, the charity is going to get a little extension. So that means more time to work on stuff and an extra unit from me for the grand army. Time for another teaser pic!