The Beard Bunker

In January, Harvey and I decided to have a crack at painting a Tyranid army as a joint project. Today's post is a very simple one: who is it, painting a joint army in this way, what's worked well, and what have we done to keep up the enthusiasm and momentum? This is a follow-up to Harvey's initial post in March , in which he explained the premise behind this project and how they're painted. We primed the first miniatures at the end of January, and after about four and a half months, here's where the swarm is at: Yeah, that's 2,360 points' worth of Tyranids, and since this photo was taken, Harvey's done another 10 Barbgaunts, bringing us to 2,470. We're both slightly taken aback at how successful this has been, but it should be mentioned that Harvey has happened to have a lot of time off work recently, and as a result, he has made twice as much progress as me. Here's how it breaks down: Harvey's bounteous effort My modest glossings It's a ...

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...

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. ...

Today’s post is about iteration, how satisfying it can be to watch skills improve over time, and grav tanks. We here at the Craftworld Eldar Appreciation Society love grav tanks, yes we do. It’s been thrown about in our little gaming group from time to time that I have a type when it comes to my hobby. I like my characters a little villainous (or if they’re straight up heroes, a little dumb), and I paint a lot of black-and-off-white. Over the years I’ve done black stormtroopers with white lights, white harlequins with black underclothes, black templars, and a whole craftworld eldar army in Ulthwe colours. That last one is the important one for this post, because I’ve actually worked on 3 Ulthwe armies so far. Sort of. I’ve spent my last year or so, on and off, revisiting my eldar army. It started with a rebasing, given I’d begun the army (6 years or so ago) with the fastest basing I could think of: Crackle paint, rocks, and not much else. This changed, partly to reflect the army’s lore...

Sometimes it’s hard to know where to start when trying to make narrative campaigns happen, but today’s post will walk you through the Beard Bunker’s most recent campaign weekend, and honestly the process couldn’t have been simpler. In summary, it went like this: I met this guy RJ in a previous weekend campaign ( part 1 , part 2 ) put together by Bristol Tom, whose beautiful Ynnari army is incidentally featured in this month's White Dwarf (issue 514). I liked the cut of RJ's jib, so under the misapprehension that he'd now moved to Bristol as advertised, I invite him for a day’s gaming. RJ tells me he’s still in Fife. We proceed anyway, but make it a weekend. I ask him what he’ll bring. He tells me necrons. I ask the other necron appreciators in our group if they’re down. They are. I rummage around our wiki for worlds that’d suit a necron raid, and find the under-utilised blackstone mines of IOL-804 . I fill out the background a little, take the same illustration I already us...

As Charlie mentioned in October , 2024 has not been a great year for many at the Beard Bunker.  Nevertheless, hobby sure has hobbied, maybe less hobby for some of us than previous years, but as is our increasingly consistent tradition , we’ll take a whizz around the Bunkerites and have a look back at their year in nerdivision, and their aspirations for 2025.

 For the first of the Beard Bunker’s temporarily monthly offerings, I thought I’d write about something dear to my hobbyist’s heart: The Imperial Guard. Specifically my Imperial Guard collection, the 31st Nightfall Ranger Regiment. This is the first of a double-bill of posts, with this one talking about the Imperial Guard as a narrative army and my collection as it currently stands, and the next post exploring homebrew rules in the world of modern 40k. Men of Nightfall... Do you want to live forever? Why I Love Them Ah, the Guard. There is nothing quite like the mental image of a band of poorly equipped and under-appreciated human grunts going up against alien monstrosities, posthuman demigods and nightmarish hordes of daemons. The Imperial Guard channel that “indomitable human spirit” flavour which pairs so deliciously with the relentlessly bleak grimdark of Warhammer 40,000. They’re a whole army of underdogs and that’s what I love them for. I’ve had a number of Imperial Guard arm...