Guest Blog Goes Live!

Today marks an exciting moment for the Longbeard. The first post in a series of guest blogs goes live at Warhammer39999. The blog will be posted every 2 weeks and will detail my new space marine project.

http://www.warhammer39999.com/2011/01/greetingsthe-road-ahead/

The project sees the return of the Keepers of the Flame chapter. The first post is quite info heavy, with a painting guide and project goals. But give it a look and follow the series. Any comments on the army would be great.

This is not a total change! I will still be posting here with things like the custodes project, the vikings and many other things. So don't worry, I'm not killing this off at all.

To wet your apatite a bit, here is the first of the chapter to be finished bar his base.



I know, very orange right. Any way, I hope you all follow and enjoy the series maybe it might even inspire people to start some new 40K armies.

So, go over to the blog and see what you think!

http://www.warhammer39999.com/2011/01/greetingsthe-road-ahead/

TheUltimate Hobby Guide Worldwide Project!

Hello, second blog of today, and massively important!

I am starting up a worldwide hobby project! I want anyone who is willing to send me painting, sculpting or any hobby based tutorials to be formed into The Ultimate Hobby Guide! The Tome will be made available for download to all across the Internet, and maybe, if it works out, will be made available in a real bound book edition for those who want to pay for it!

So, what can you do to get involved?

• First, have an idea. It can be a painting tutorial, a new way of sculpting, a simple tutorial on construction or literally anything hobby based.

• Second, write the tutorial in a word document. You should include pictures if you can. the tutorial should be easy to follow and should provide a step by step guide if possible. The technique doesn't need to be simple, it can be as complex as you like.

• Third, email your tutorial to me at thelongbeard2010@gmail.com . Also include contact details for yourself, a name the tutorial can be accredited to and if you want it linked to a website, your blog or another you can add that too.

That's it! Once you have sent it i will give it a look, and add it in to the guide. (No tutorial will be turned away, unless it is really un-usable!)

The Final Product

Once of a good size, Version One of the Ultimate Hobby Guide will be published online. I will also try and make it available in hardback form for those who want a real copy of the first addition book.

The reasons for this are simple.

1. To strengthen the hobby community between blogs.
2. To create a valuable resource for hobbyists everywhere

I have set up a new page on which I will list every tutorial I receive and who I get it from. I will also post updates on the overall project on the page.
http://longbeard-painting.blogspot.com/p/ultimate-bloggers-hobby-guide.html

So, I hope to hear from you all very soon with tutorials. There is not limit to the number any one person can submit and the more you submit, the more accreditation's you will receive in the final book! (Could be a great way of increasing your blog traffic).

Please feel free to discuss the project within the comments system.

Caution: Threat of Viking Invasion

"Full they were of fighters and flashing shield-boards, western war-lances and wound-blades Frankish; cried then the bersarks, carnage they had thoughts of, wailed then the wolf-coated and weapons brandished." Haraldskvaeði

For a while now I've wanted to work on some more historical miniatures and seeing some on the new perry miniatures really inspired me to get on with it. Under my desk I found 2 boxes of Wargames Foundry vikings 1 box of Hirdmen and 1 box of Bondi.

So, as I had some time on my hands, out they came. The models are mostly one or two part miniatures and are supplied with standard MDF laser cut bases. This i think is a major reason why their models are so cheap. They however, of a great standard, easily as good as anything made by other miniature companies.



Viking Hirdman



I had a look online for painting guides and was shocked to find the standard of painting guide so low. The only things I found look terrible, using sky blue for clothes and bright yellow for hair. So, I decided the best plan was to collect some images from the Internet of history shows and work from those.

I quickly realised that as i had so many of these to paint the scheme would need to be quick, easy and yet authentic. I decided to go for an earthy pallet of browns and muted colours. Below are the first few test models to roll of the work line.





I am pleased with these as bulk troops. When finished they will stand in units of 45 and so I'm not going to spend long periods of time highlighting etc.

The keys stages are:

• Dry brushed armour and weapons
• Leather - Dark Flesh and Devlan Mud wash
• Skin - Tallarn Flesh and Devlan Mud wash
• Wood - Bestial Brown and Devlan Mud wash

Keeping these simple allows me to batch paint them in between painting other projects. This project will take a side line now to my Custodes, but will receive a few posts every now and then when something new gets started or finished.

Before i go, my new guest post at Warhammer39999.com goes live tomorrow, check it out with the link below.

http://www.warhammer39999.com/

I will be posted every 2 weeks as part of a space marine project I am starting. For more details, check it out tomorrow. I will post a blog here on this tomorrow.

As always, comments and suggestions are welcome.

Adeptus Custode Update

Those of you who followed my last post will know i am starting to work on an Adeptus Custodian army. I spent some time looking into their background and in the end decided to go for the classic mid-heresey view of the custodians. In this blog I will give you a run down of my selected army list and some of my ideas for how to bring this idea to life (well, plastic based life anyway). But before all this, a picture I think sums up the Custodes job perfectly.

So, to the army list. I have chosen to use the Tempus Fugitives list which can be downloaded from their website, http://www.tempusfugitives.co.uk/ you will have to become a member to download it, but its free and well worth it. (They have also written several other pre-mid heresey army lists as well as many other codex's and index astartes documents).

So, the list. I'll break it down into its force organisation sections and give a brief over view of what things are.

HQ

Constantin Valdor - Chief Custodian 300 Points
(Ws8) (Bs5) (S5) (T5) (W4) (I6) (A5) (Ld10) (Sv 2+)

Custodian Kataphract Squad 300 Points (3 Kataphract)
-4 Extra Kataphract 400 Points
-3 Imolator Lances 45 Points
-Land Raider Spartan 300 Points           Total 1045Points
(Ws6) (Bs4) (S4) (T5) (W2) (I5) (A4) (Ld10) (Sv 2+)

Ellites

Amon Tauromachian - Custode Infiltrator 130 Points
(Ws6) (Bs5) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A4) (Ld10) (Sv 3+)

Troops

Custode Envoy Squad 245 Points (3 Custodes)
-Adamantine Cloaks 60 Points
-Aquila Standard 35 Points
+Emperor's Gift APC 90 Points
-Pintle Mounted Plasma Gun 15 Points      Total 445 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Custode Envoy Squad 245 Points (3 Custodes)
-Adamantine Cloaks 60 Points
+Emperor's Gift APC 90 Points
-Pintle Mounted Plasma Gun 15 Points      Total 410 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Custode Envoy Squad 245 Points (3 Custodes)
-Adamantine Cloaks 60 Points
+Emperor's Gift APC 90 Points
-Pintle Mounted Plasma Gun 15 Points      Total 410 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Custode Envoy Squad 245 Points (3 Custodes)
-Adamantine Cloaks 60 Points
+Storm Hawk 225 Points                             Total 530 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Custode Envoy Squad 245 Points (3 Custodes)
-Adamantine Cloaks 60 Points
+Storm Hawk 225 Points                             Total 530 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Custode Envoy Squad 245 Points (3 Custodes)
-4 Extra Envoys 300 Points
-Adamantine Cloaks 140 Points
-Jump Packs 175 Points                              Total 860 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Fast Attack

Custode Jet Bike Squad 320 Points (3 Bikers)
-2 Extra Bikers 200 Points
-2 Assault Cannons 30 Points
-Adamantine Cloaks 100 Points               Total 650 Points
(Ws5) (Bs4) (S4) (T4(5)) (W2) (I5) (A3) (Ld10) (Sv 2+) (the captain is Ws 6 and has 4 attacks)

Note: The other 2 fast attack choices were used by the two envoy squads that have Storm Hawks as transports.

Heavy Support

Custode Ancient 185 Points
-Rotary Lascannon 30 Points                 Total 215 Points
(Ws6) (Bs5) (S6) (I4) (A3) (Front 13) (Side 13) (Rear 10)

Custode Ancient 185 Points
-Rotary Lascannon 30 Points                 Total 215 Points
(Ws6) (Bs5) (S6) (I4) (A3) (Front 13) (Side 13) (Rear 10)

Note: The two Ancients can ride on the back of the Storm Hawks with the Envoy squads making them quite a nasty suprise.

Note: The Land Raider Spartan used a transport for the Kataphract squad take up the third and final heavy support choice slot.

Army Total 5'740 Points

As this probably shows you, this will only ever be used in Apocolypse games for 2 reasons.
1) The huge number of points, it's nearly 2 apocolypse armies on its own (May have to try and get another 260 points in to it some how).
2) The rules set are not an official GW set and so a lot of players wouldn't allow the use of them in anything but apocolypse.

One way around this that I am considering is using the rules for grey knights when they come out in April for normal games of 40K and then just using this list in friendly games of apocolypse.

This list is a great way of giving myself a target. Since writting it i have loads of ideas for how to convert the different elements of the army, although the storm hawks are still vexing me at the moment.

Will thats about it hopefully by the next post i'll have some nice shiny new models to show you as well as something a little bit Blood Angely

So long.

Adeptus Custodes!

I know, two posts in one day? Amazing what a day off can do.

Now I've dreamed like many, of doing a custode army but never really got round to it due to the huge amount of conversion work required. Then however, I found a sale of 10 custodes online cast in white metal from the states. This was perfect to get me going.

I have only built two of them so far, but more will be following along with conversions for the rest of the army. These will form my Envoy squads 2 custodes in each, giving me 5 squads. (There will actualy be 3 in each squad but the 3rd will be armed with a gladius and storm shield and so will be converted later on for each squad).

So, here they are, the first 2 of my new custode army in all there glory.

 Both models are stunningly detailed, although putting them together was hell (the arm come in 3 parts, plus the hands attached to the weapon and the shoulder pads!)

They may be a fiddle, but they look awesome and have really inspired me to get on and do the army. As soon as possible I will be ordering some of these. (http://sciborminiatures.com/en_,shop.php?art=1029#i/conversion_parts/big/sf_roman_legionary_set_01.jpg) They will form my squad leaders for the envoy squads. There however, (http://sciborminiatures.com/en_,shop.php?art=933) will form my cataphract squads.

So, a new year, a new army and a massive amount to do, hopefully a new post will be up soon.

So long.

The Longbeard Returns Death Marshal

Congratulation on making through the long dark of Christmas and welcome a brand new sparkling year (he says watching he rain poor down outside the window). So Christmas has come and gone and we find ourselves in 2011. It's been a while since I posted, mainly due to Christmas (damn you fat man in a red suit and your expensive gift giving holiday).

Anyway, I finally finished the first Death Marshal for my Malifaux gang!

The Death Marshal

As you can see, the majority of the model is made up of his long leather coat and hat. I decided for this reason to really go tot own on it rather than just a quick leather wash job. I started with Dark Flesh Tone (VGC) then slowly blended up to Tan (VGC) and finally worked up to Dwarf Skin (VGC) before washing the coat and hat with Devlan Mud twice. This gives a really realistic leather effect and also makes the coat look older with creases and rips.

The next largest part of the model was the coffin. This in many was was easy, wooden planks, a chain and a padlock. However, I decided to again not just chuck some brown on and wash it. Instead I working through Burned Brown (VGC) up to Parasite Brown (VGC) and washed with Badab Black. The chains were painted Silver (VGC) along with the padlock and were also washed with Badab Black.

The last main feature, was the face. I wanted to make the Marshals very pale and also devoid of life. (They spend all there time combating necromancy using necromancy as a weapon against itself, its going to leave a mark). I started with Tan (VGC) and worked up through Dwarf Skin (VGC) and Light Skin Tone (VGC). I then worked up from Light Skin Tone (VGC) up to white before washing the skin with Sepia (VGC). I hen added some pure white highlights.

I opted for a very dark selection of browns and blacks across this model, accenting with the pale skin and grey hair. I feel this suits the model's dark job and means by which it works.

With that, I leave you with  few last pictures of the model. Also, sorry about the photography, the light was really terrible and my new camera really struggled to focus in it. I shall get the light tent back out for next time.