The Beard Bunker

A while back now, Charlie wrote the excellent Fury of the Swarm expansion for 40k. I think it's fair to say it left an impression, because not only have we continued playing it to this day, but I was left with the overwhelming desire to finally do an army I’d always looked at and admired, but never wanted myself. Tyranids. SCREEEEEEE Conception - Why not sooner? Because the line infantry was mid (until they refreshed the gaunts, which helped push me into it because they're just SO GOOD) and I'm very character focused when it comes to an army. I'll have a definite protagonist character through who I view the army and its exploits, and tyranids can't have that. Their whole schtick is the faceless swarm, and that was a waterline hole in how I invest myself in a project. So the new gaunts came out, and I had a reason to want an NPC army that didn't need a strong character, thanks to Charlie. Let's get it. ...And then Charlie and I got talking, and we both reali...

At this point I’ve done quite a run of “Tom fixes a Primaris kit he doesn't like”.  The Desolators , obviously, the Invictor Warsuit , the Aggressors and Incursors …  Quite aside from my constant tweaking and improving of otherwise acceptable units I just want to do my way.  This isn’t that, well, not exactly.  I genuinely think the Lieutenant With Combi-weapon is a great model (with a stupid name).  I used to be an Ultramarine player when I first started (blindly following the box art without understanding, and then sticking with that choice for many years), and I love this call-back to the Tyrannic War Veterans.  However it doesn't really suit my Raven Guard, who don’t often face Tyranids (since I’m the only person I know in this city with a full Tyranid army*).  Plus the model kind of gives off psycho killer vibes, rather than sneaky beaky.  So, as ever, I made my own. Image Credit: Games Workshop, used without permission for illustrative purpo...

Welcome to a world of infinite possibilities!  Veteran bunker readers will be aware that I’ve been dabbling in 3d printing warhammer bits for a long time, despite the fact I do not have a printer myself.  I recently shared some photos of newly acquired bits to fellow bunkerites, and a few asked about how I went about acquiring them, so I figured why not write a little post to share that knowledge.  Honestly there’s no mystery to it, but these things are often easier if you don’t have to work it out for yourself. Unlike Charlie, I hate freehand, so these lovely raven icons on their shoulders are custom printed Worth noting here that a lot of sites these days are selling 3d printed products, what I’m talking about here is the process of finding or making 3d models and getting them printed for you on demand. Finding Bits There’s two obvious options here, you can find some online and download them, or you can make them yourself.  The key thing is the file type you will n...

Falling through the heavens in a drop pod is about the most Space Marine thing you can do, besides angrily pointing at something while standing on a rock, or possibly struggling to fit through doors. So last year, when Games Workshop announced they were doing a new drop pod kit that's easier to build, I was pretty excited. I have two of the old ones, which are great once you've done them, but which take a lot of time to build, and suck to paint. The new ones, on the other hand, were a fun puzzle: was it possible, I wondered, to paint them mostly using masking tape and spray primer? It's so few parts, and those parts are so flat, that I wanted to see if it was possible. The answer is yes, but the remaining question is how much effort this truly saves you. Glue is mostly optional Other than one section of one of the five doors, the only parts you need glue for are the optional extras, which are the additional bits of rubble and the Chapter Badges/Aquilas. Once those are glued...

If you're going to create your own sector of Imperial space to situate your games of Warhammer 40K ( and in 2020 we did ), it follows that you would want to fight some one-off battles in it, as well as short campaigns, and some all-out wars. Following on from the Word Bearers' raid on the Lachesis system (which we played through in 2022 and  wrote up on Goonhammer ), everyone's favourite Chaos-worshipping gits finally invaded the system in July of 2024, when we added a persistent warzone . We then caught up with happenings in that warzone in October . This last January, the war ended over one final weekend of butchery. Today's post consolidates all 18 months of the campaign's narrative, followed by my reflections on how well the campaign structure worked. An Overview of the Lachesian War The extract below is the first chapter of The Lachesian War: its Causes, Occurrences and Consequences by Diokles Adrastos, Chief Librarian of the Cobalt Scions. Before I embark upon...

I've been having a think about my priorities. The Beard Bunker has always been something that is written purely for fun. We try to keep to a schedule, because without schedules nothing ever happens, but ultimately it's a hobby project that has to fit in alongside work, writing other things, volunteering, et cetera. Between doing the photography and the writing, I find producing the average post takes the better part of a day. Since the number of Bunkerettes who are currently able to post has steadily dwindled, this means that myself and Tom are writing the bulk of the content. This is not a source of resentment; no-one's being paid, and no-one's under obligation, but writing said content is, unfortunately, eating too much of our time. We both feel we could comfortably write one post a month. If we each do that, this means the Bunker could healthily sustain a fortnightly schedule, rather than the weekly pace we've historically aimed for. It's worth saying that n...

It wasn't immediately obvious that I had a lemon in my hands. The packaging promised me a Space Marine Gladiator tank. Certainly that's what my friends thought they'd bought me for my birthday, and very grateful I was too. And as proven the first time I built one of these things, a Gladiator can also serve as an Impulsor - just don't glue the arse on . With this new lad, I set about building it just the same way. I remembered how easily it had gone together the last time. All was well. Except, of course, it wasn't. Because it was a lemon. The citrusness first emerged when I dry-fitted the hull plates. That's weird , I thought, those are supposed to fit.  And yet they didn't. I was looking at a 1-3mm gap, depending on where you looked. How have I got this so wrong? I wondered. But 'twas not I, oh no sir. This bitch had warped harder than the USS Voyager hijacking a Borg transwarp conduit. Maybe it's just bent , I thought. That's fine, I can bend p...

Life continues to be taxing for many of the Bunkerites, we seem to be hitting a lot of crises that are happening in the mid-life, but not the fun kind.  Nobody has bought themselves a (new) motorbike yet (he says, genuinely considering it since I sold my last one about 6 years ago and I miss it).  Nevertheless, Warhammer remains a beacon of fun and friendship amidst the darkness, bringing us together time and time again for a bit of entertainment and a reminder that things could still be much much worse.  As is our annual tradition , we’re going to look back at what we’ve been up to this year, and maybe some hopes for the future.   Tom 2025 has been much less productive than I’d hoped, but things have begun to look up in the last few months.  The most obvious question to answer, is my Thunderhawk completed, is sadly a no.  I’m nearly there but prioritised other units for the ODF weekend that, by the time you read this, I will have just had. ...