The Beard Bunker

Some of you may be familiar with Tabletop World , but for those of you who aren’t: they’re two dudes based in Croatia who make ridiculously detailed 28mm fantasy terrain. Behold: Le Townhouse Le Cottage Pretty, no? Here’s the other facings of the buildings:     Assembly Since these were resin pieces, I was braced for Forgeworld levels of assembly, that is to say sturm, drang, and much gnashing of teeth in pursuit of beauty. Imagine my surprise, then, when it turned out that these buildings require no assembly whatsoever. They come in two parts, building and roof. See? It just lifts off. The only ‘assembly’ I did was just the usual resin preparation, i.e. washing the components to get any releasing agents off the mould, and filling a couple of bubbles with green stuff. You may also be wondering what the point of having a lift-off roof might be. That, milord, would be a fully sculpted interior. Ahhhh yeahhh . Since these buildings ...

It was one of the hottest, sunniest, most beautiful days of the year. One can’t take these things for granted in Britain. The problem? Four of my oldest friends were converging on my little house for the weekend to play some wargames, and wargaming isn’t a famously outdoorsy pursuit. The solution? Take the table outside and play on the patio. We even made an awning/parasol by stringing some bedsheets off the clothesline, although gravity and our drive-by workmanship meant that it didn’t last. Sunburn and sheer relentless heat eventually forced us back inside, but the important thing was that we had very civilised fun. And which scenario should we choose to play in this glorious sunshine but something set in the dead of night, of course. I shall describe it here in the hopes that it might provide some inspiration for anyone looking to do something outside your standard garden-variety Warhammer battle. It’s pretty much impossible to tell what’s going on in...

They go up, diddy up up, they go splat, spl-a-at... I don't often share Work In Progress stuff but this has turned out great so I couldn't wait! I wanted to add a Doom Diver to the growing Gobbo horde but... I kinda like the current one but it is a whole hell of a lot of money for what it is. I set my brain to musing. Then I saw one of those clown cannons on the telly and everything swam into place. A quick search on ebay gave me some classic doom diver crew members (the one with furled wings is in the post). Add in a looted Empire mortar and some converted crew and the Doom Diver Mortar is born! This surly fellow is the loader/primer for the mortar. The mushroom stoppered jug contains the fine ground powder needed to fill the touchhole. The big ol' scoop is a powder measure for the main charge but I doubt that goblins figured out precision measurements and just ladel it in "to taste". Some of the componants are a little wonky as I've left the m...

As Jeff talked about in an earlier post on the fantastic Pirate Viking Painting ( Found Here ) some of the Beard Bunker Dwellers are going to be working on small Dark Eldar skirmish armies this year. As a result of my fairly emphatic army builds last year, my hobby has been fairly slow this year, just some sedate work on my Dark Angels. However, I've finally found me some hobby juice in the Dark Eldar project. The idea has been slowly simmering away in the back of my brain to do a Wych Cult army based around the grand gladiator arenas of Commorragh. Here are the first few models of the main Wyches unit. I've gone for an uncharacteristically bright colour scheme. For both me and the Dark Eldar bright colours are something we just don't get on with. However I wanted to, as a painter, try something outside of my normal repertoire. As for the background for the army, well these people are performers. Sure they are murderous, callous, and very dang...

Nothing gets my procrastination reflexes going like DIY, and as such, it seems a little odd that I’ll happily spend hours fitting a nice bay window onto the front of a little plastic building. There’s clearly something wrong with me. And why was I putting a different window onto the front of the Empire Chapel kit? Because the original carvings are a) too ecclesiastical for anything other than a chapel, and b) too distinctive to be adorning the front of more than one building in a scenery collection. Witness the difference:     The window itself was made by splicing together two of the tall thin windows you get in (I think) the Watchtower set. Yay razorsaw! My secondary objective was to reduce the number of skull-filled windows on the chapel kit, since I wanted this building to be more of a generic dwelling. If you’re wandering why I wanted to do that, then clearly the phrase ‘skull-filled windows’ doesn’t have quite the same effect on you as it does on some...

The following account is excerted from the papers of Hochland intelligence gathering reporting to Aldebrand Ludenhof, Elector of Hochland, and concern the events of June 7th of this year. As you will know my Lord, Goblin activity in Hochland is no longer confined to the Eastern reaches. There has been a troubling increase in reported attacks along the Old Forest Road. To this end Captain Oscar Brandt was dispatched to bring these filth to heel and open vital lines of communication between Fort Schippel and Bergsberg. Our assumption was that the tribes operating in this area would be the same incompetant scum seen along the Eastern Drakwald. Sadly, it seems not to have been the case. This was the last official report to come from the column: Captain Oscar Brandt "Goblins sighted, typical ignorant tactics, simply marching up the road to meet us. Am deploying column to repell. Master Von Rudinger to harry the flanks and cut off lines of retreat." A day or so later,...

Finally, the Empire Flagellants are finished. Yay! In celebration, I shall sing the Doom Song . But there's one problem: all the other regiments in the Hochland army have a certain individuality to them. The Blades of Taal are common blokes made to dress posh by their commander , and the Powderkegs are a motley assemblage of semi-competent rejects. Each game they're involved in will be the next chapter of their story, and no matter how badly they're mauled, I'll usually think up some guff about how at least some of them escaped and lived on to fight the next battle. Flagellants, on the other hand, are suicidal fundamentalists unlikely to survive game turn two, never mind a whole engagement. It'd seem ridiculous to spend ages writing a backstory for some doom-saying prophet who's going to do his best to hump the bad guys' spears at the first opportunity. So, instead, why not have a different cult for every wargaming occasion? Ladi...

In which we conclude Vandemar's introductions with the outer circle of his operational unit. As before, links under the pictures lead to painting articles. Follow these links for Episodes one and two . While my Inner Circle are the solid foundations that prop up The Firm there is more to my operational unit than my close colleagues. The operational unit requires skilled individuals to perform its role. However these people may not display the deeper talents or easy group cohesion that will grant them a place in the Inner Circle. It may be as simple as being a poor fit for the rest of the team. Some, I will confess, I deliberately hold at arm’s length. I feel I should start by introducing those who are close to being part of my closest colleagues. Enforcer Callaghan I do believe that what the Emperor takes with one hand he may return with the other. I mentioned the Affair of the Corvid Maze earlier in this chronicle. That unhappy affair cost me a long term ally in...