Festive Projects

Morning all,

So pretty soon, it'll be Xmas and everyone will (hopefully) be getting some time off work and unwrapping lots of hobby goodies that are under the tree. Whilst I was assembling some dwarfs last night, I started thinking about what I'm going to try to get done whilst I'm off work.

1. Brotherhood of the Forge
I've made a fair bit of progress with these, as they've been sat in a box for the last 5 months whilst my Dark Angels and Chaos Daemons were top priority.

So far I've got Arch Confessor Kyrinov made and 6 Crusader Henchmen. Last night I got half way through a 5 man Dominion squad before I called it a night. The thing I loved about these guys first time round was how quick they were to paint. Dark colours, mostly metal armour and minimal amounts of skin on show - meaning that they *should* be quick to get finished so I can get some use out of the army with the WD codex.

I've got the following to assemble, spray and paint:
- 10 Seraphim
- 20 Battle Brothers
- 1 Command Squad
- 1 Saint Celstine
- 1 Immolator

2. Dark Eldar
Next up (not necessarily in priority order...) is a load of Dark Eldar bits I traded some LOTR stuff for at the last Warboot event. I've got 40 old style Kabalite warriors (4 units of 10 warriors, 1 Splinter cannon and Sybarite in each) and 5 metal Wyches to strip down and paint.

What interests me most here, is whether or not my Kabal's Ice Blue armour scheme will look any good on the older models. The new Kabalite warriors armour tends have more defined layers that curve outwards, whereas the older models have more curved inwards, closely layered armour. It'll be interesting to see anyway, and allows me to heavily bulk out my Dark Eldar with more Kabalite warriors, which are one of my favourite units in the book.

I've got the following to strip, spray and paint:
- 40 Kabalite Warriors
- 5 Wyches (to be Hekatrix bloodbrides)
- 3 Venoms

3. Necrons
Here's hoping Father Christmas brings me the Necron stuff I've asked for, if not, I've got 2 boxes of Immortals sat under the tree that I bought at the start of this month. I'm not too sure what to arm my new Immortals with, whether to go the traditional Gauss Blaster route and replace / bulk up my Metal units, or to give Tesla carbines a try.

On top of that, I should have the two released Necron special characters, some Lychguard (not sure whether I'll convert these to Crypteks yet though) and a Ghost Ark. At first, I was really miffed off with the Necron codex, but now I'm interested in how the new units will work and how it'll change the dynamic of an army I've had since I first started 40k.

Also on the topic of Necrons, I've been debating repainting the army or at the very least, washing them. They were done pre-Badab Black days and when I get them out compared to my more recently painted models, they're showing their age. It would also let me add a bit more variety to the other Necron armies I've seen around.

4. Bretonnians
These have been an ongoing project for the last 4 or 5 years and they're still irritating me to this day. I really would like to play more Warhammer Fantasy and get some use out of the army, but I have zero desire to paint them. With a few members of the club expressing more interest in playing Fantasy, maybe it'll give me a kick up the backside

To paint:
- 8 Grail Knights
- 5 Mounted Yeomen
- Grail Reliquae and 20 Battle Pilgrims
- Mounted Damsel
- Damsel on foot
- 3 Pegasus Knights

5. Scenery
Last on the list to do is to deal with some scenery I've bought over the last year from eBay. I think I've got about 20 - 30 trees dumped in a box which are all just loose standing, but after going to Stockport NWGC for a tourney last month, I really liked the way they've done the trees.

Basically it's a kidney shaped piece of hardboard, with 3 60mm (ish) holes cut into it. Take the hole piece you've cut out, glue the tree to that, then glue a piece of stiffened card underneath the hole you've drilled (so you can pick it up as 1 piece) and then spray and paint.

It looked really good and meant you could easily shift the trees if you needed to, as well as meaning trees can be left loose for easy storage and mixed and matched between each base.

The only problem is just the time it takes to do all of that, maybe with some help from a local DIY expert (i.e. My Dad) the job will get done a bit quicker.

So that's it for my plans folks. I highly doubt any of it will get done, but it's worth listing down what you want to aim for...

So, what are you guys planning to get up to hobbywise over the Xmas period?

SB