The Beard Bunker

Today I get to delve into the heady subject of model storage.  Isn't this exciting boys and girls, I hope you are all sitting comfortably as I'm going to begin.
There comes a point in any hobbyists journey where they start to think:Hmmmmm, where am I going to store these models, all the cupboards in the kitchen are full and I'm not sure how the cold in the fridge will affect the glue?or:Right, the shoebox and tissue paper just isn't cutting it for my 6000 points of Eldar, how am I going to keep them all safe?The second one is not a lie, I've seen this.  Their excuse was that mini storage was too expensive!Generally however, this is when you start to wonder about how you are going to store your models.  It's something I've been making a few changes about with mine and our group has been asking a lot of questions so I thought I'd bring together everything I've worked out over the years and share it.  This is not everything there is on storage, and ther…

Welcome, my fellow acolytes of the Unspeakable Powers, to this most Tainted of Thursdays. In fact, speaking of taint... can you smell that? And is that... chanting? Counting?

If you've yet to really dig into the Sector Imperialis terrain, today's post will hopefully equip you with some useful knowledge. It will also serve as the start of a project log for my "modestly sized" Imperial chapel.

When we think of Chaos, we usually think of them hurtling toward the enemy, eager rend with blade, tooth and claw. But there are those who give praise to the Dark Gods in other ways, those for whom the scream of the lascannon and the roar of the missile launcher are prayers. I speak, of course, of those who band together into the Havoc cults:

The Indomitus box mostly offered lovely sculpts that were thematically wrong for my army, but the Indomitus Chaplain jumped right into the category of DIS SPACE MAN PRETTY, PUT HIM RIGHT IN MY FACE PLEEZ. One eBay split later, the deed was done. Today's post is therefore a celebration of that most classic of 40K archetypes: a shouty bald man standing on a rock.
It's a small rock, because he is a man of taste. A man of refinement. The sort of man you could take home to your Reclusiarch and who could hold his own in the inevitable bout of competitive xenophobia.

Why am I quoting Sin City? Well, something gribbly this way comes and yeah... it fits...

As soon as I saw the Ancient in the Indomitus box, I realised how much I wanted... the Ancient from Dark Imperium. The monkish vibe of the new dude is amazing for Dark Angels or Black Templars or any of those medieval aesthetic dudes, but thematically feels way off the mark for my army. Since there's no standalone Ancient kit and Dark Imperium is now OOP I hit up eBay and got my mits on this wee fella.

Well met fellow followers of The Word. We have gathered here on another Tainted Thursday to introduce you all to more brave warriors of the XVIIth Legion. Today it is the turn of more marines from the rank and file to swell the numbers among the Graven Star:

Welcome to another episode of Charlie dials a Citadel Miniature down to 10. In this episode, I'm going to explain my illegal assembly decisions, touch on upscaling the Cobalt Scions paint scheme to a large vehicle, and why there's a Dark Angels icon painted on its arse.

It's fair to say: I've got a bit of a thing for cults. Not content with painting 3k of Genestealer Cults I turn my eyes to the Eightfold Path and chose that most culty of legions: The Word Bearers. Having already brought you the Tannabheim IXth and the Corvid Cabal, today we're meeting some more Cultists following the Graven Star. How many? Oh, just another 30...

I've had a bit of interest on how I do the forest basing that is on my Tau. In response I've put together a little step by step of what I actually do to get this:  So grab your basing bits and lets get started. I've grabbed a couple of spare empty bases, just so I can show the method:
I start by given them a solid base layer of Stirland Mud. This gives a nice textured surface to work up from. Leave to dry over night:
Next up I use Vallejo Thick Mud - European Mud. This is a diffrent colour, more desaturated and has a less consistant texture with little random bits of grass and the like. It all adds to the random, which is what we are after as nature hates straight lines. If I had a model on the base I would also stipple some up on to the feet/hooves/claws/tracks etc just to help blend the model into the base. Do not use your best brushes for this:

Once that has dried properly, again I tend to leave this over night, I superglue a few bits of stick, bark, and twig to the base. …

I honestly started this quixotic endeavour with the intention of making a simple spreadsheet to track my Crusade tallies. I'd never written an IF function in a spreadsheet before. I didn't even know IF functions were a thing in Google Sheets. Neither had I considered making something that could be used to make army lists in seconds via some tick boxes.
Sometimes, feature creep bears unexpected fruit.
Today's post is intended as a useful resource for anyone using the Crusade Rules in 9th edition 40K, but honestly, I think it's pretty useful for anyone who regularly changes their list between games.

... They ARE the jungle.  In a somewhat Stark contrast to Andy's take on the Tau, my vision of them is rather more utilitarian. I've gone for a very simple scheme indicative of the industrial war machinery of another regime that also believed in the Greater Good*. To add a layer of interest, and because I seem to always want to over compliate everything, I have pushed the boat out with the weathering and basing on these guys.   The main paint scheme is drab green and black. The Green starts with Death World Forest, then a wash/pin wash** of Athonian Camo Shade***, Elysian Green, then finally Ogryn Camo. The Black was Corvus Black everywhere but the deepest of recesses where I left the Choas Black undercoat showing, then highlighted with Eshin Grey and Dawnstone.  Next up was the weathing stage. This was achived by taking a very light colour and a very small brush and gently building up the chipping with tiny dots and stratches. This is time consuming and probably could be done w…

Allow me to indroduce the Ikarran Dynasty, my fledgling Crusade force which will combine my old Necron army from days-of-yore, and all the lovely newness of 9th Edition.  For anyone who wishes to get ahead of the posts, a lot of the flavour text you'll read here can be found on the Cetus wiki.The names the Ikarran Necrontyr used for the worlds of the Eridani Sector have been lost in time. Needless to say, both Eridani and Achenar Sector were once part of their dominion.In an age when dinosaurs still roamed Terra, and humanity's ancestors were but tiny vermin desperately trying to avoid becoming the next meal, the Ikarran dynasty was at its peak. Victors of sorts of the War in Heaven, and vanquishers of the C'Tan, they along with the other dynasties were masters of the Galaxy. Seeing little more to achieve, they realised their lives would no longer have purpose. Withdrawing to their birth worlds, they erected defences as they went so that they could remain undisturbed until…