The Beard Bunker

Jeff announced he was planning a small Necromunda campaign, and so I took it as an excuse to buy a pile of Sector Mechanicus scenery. For reference, the images that follow were built from the following kits: 2x Mechanicus killzones (that's the stuff in brown plastic) 2x thermic plasma regulators (2 regulators per kit = 4 in total) 1x sacristan forgeshrine (that's the Imperial Knight maintenance bay kit) 1x galvanic mangavent (mostly to  increase the amount of available walkways) Oh, and a spare crane I didn't use when I made the  munitorum scenery . Jeff will also be donating his walkways, as he has no use for them. Here's everything laid out: When Tom and I assembled this, we focused on flexibility. See, everything there comes apart. The kits, designed by Ray Dranfield, are astonishingly modular. Tom and I kept finding new combinations of parts that worked together during construction and were pretty much blown away as a result. The level of detail i...

General Rikarht von Hess  and the Weissguard Greatswords peer over the battlements at Volgin's approaching siege towers. Today's post is a (very) short story from the World that Was if you're an Age of Sigmar player, or the World that Still Is if you're that way inclined. It's set during an event that we actually played through years ago in the Hochland campaign... not that it's necessary to know the context for the story to make sense. Enjoy! * * * The Greatest Achievement of Jonas Ostkamp When the recruiting sergeant had told Jonas Ostkamp about the armour, pay and food given to those who served in the Weissguard Greatswords, the concept of standing one's ground under any circumstance had been abstract, and the hunger had been very real. Now it was the other way round. Fort Schippel, the Empire’s last bastion in Eastern Hochland, was surrounded by a throng of Norsemen. Attempts to destroy their siege towers had failed. There wa...

It seems I owe Gee-Dubz an apology. When their textured paint range first came out, one of the smurfs at my FLGS let me try them out and I was… less than impressed. “You can just paint it on!” he boasted (you can’t). Celhelas keeping it frosty Cut to several years later, and I tried applying that stuff with their texture spreader (which, I think, they released some time after the texture paints came out). It's like a tiny spatula. Suddenly, everything made more sense. Shovel it on with the wide end, do some fine tuning with the pointy end. You have to be so careful when applying the texture paint around the feet of a painted model that I think it's probably quicker  to use sand and glue if you’re doing a big batches of bases, but I've taken to using this stuff when I just want to base one or two dudes and can't be arsed to fetch the PVA and sand… and then sit through three long drying times. Of particular charm is the snow effect, Valhallan Blizzard. You don...

 Good day Beard Bunkerers. Winter is a great time to get some hobby done. The outside is either filled with rain or cold enough to make your face hurt. It's best stay inside and build little plastic models. Where the heating makes your basing dry faster and there is always tea available. My January has been filled with just a single model, but it's a biggie. The mighty Flying Fortress. Amazingly I actually managed to remember to take some in progress photos. Some of which were to share, some of which was just I would have proof that I have fully painted the interior. It started with the bomb bay. This part is actually visible from the outside if you have the bay doors open. Each section was built up and painted separately, then joined up to form the completed interior. The cockpit has a lot of details. Full control panel decals, included where even flight log and warnings on the door. All of which are more or less totally invisible from the outside. ...

In this post, I’ll be questioning the value of having a special rule for (almost) every unit in a wargame. This is intended largely as constructive criticism of Games Workshop, and specifically the 8th edition of 40K now that we’ve got pretty much the full set of codexes. Let me preface this with saying that I’m a fan of the current edition - it’s had me playing a game I’d not really been into since 5th edition! I imagine there will be many who disagree with my overall point, and I’ll be happy to discuss at length in the comments section if that’s the case - much like the surprisingly impassioned (and, in one anonymous instance, straight up troubling) responses my post about  female primaris space marines . Of course, the odds of this post being as divisive are essentially nil. See what you think. What do I mean by special rules? I’m making the assumption that anyone reading this knows what I mean by the term special rules, be they ‘universal’ special rules, faction-specif...

So it’s 2019 (It’s been 2019 for a while – Ed.) and what better time than the beginning sort of the beginning of the year to reflect on all the wonderful things that happened in 2018. Like many in the Beard Bunker, 2018 was the year of getting some of my bigger projects off the table and into the display cabinet. In particular, and following my moderate success with a Panther , I could finally start seriously using the airbrush – and for me, 2018 was the year of the airbrush. First up, I got two ‘Nauts finished. Dorkanaut Borkanaut I also gave them something to carry around and effectively started a Blood Axe faction for my Ork army at the same time.  Mek My first Camo Skorcha & Doc Dakka and Dakkaer Overheat? Never?  The Badmoon Nobs / Flashgitz are conversions I built for a campaign that finished in 2010. There's nothing like finishing something just in time, and this was nothing like finishing somethin...

We've begun a new year, and what better time than this arbitrary milestone to turn over a new motivational leaf and  do some exercise clear more hobby backlog? Every time I post pictures of some newly-finished Fantasy minis, I feel the need to justify the square bases. This is clearly a self-imposed need brought on by years of staying current with GW's games; it's not like the Warhammer Community team send ninjas to round off my bases in the night and torch the movement trays. That'd be uncharacteristically aggressive of them. Today's helping of square bases provides further reinforcements for my Empire collection . As usual, I've attempted to distract from the very basic techniques used on the troops themselves with an ambitious banner. (Hints on doing your own can be found here .) Of course in order to figure out what to paint on the banner, I had to figure out who these guys are. On maps of Hochland, there is a military base right in the middle o...

The beast looms large, but hides in crevices. It is found in the darker depths of the house. If one digs too deep and sees its true scale, the knowledge can crush one's spirit. Often it is best to run. Only the mightiest of brush wizards can jump into the abyss and emerge triumphant, but I'm no wizard, I'm just a hobbyist, and there's only one way for me to fight a Backlog of Morgoth: cut off little bits, again and again, until I  smite its ruin upon the hobby station . Hmm. A tad overblown, that. Let's get prosaic. When 2017 began, I took an oath to focus almost exclusively on eroding my hobby backlog instead of buying new stuff. Boy did I pick a tough time to make that decision. Little did I know that Games Workshop were about to drop 40k's 8th edition all over our collective faces, and then follow it up with a relentless tide of new hotness that made me feel like a crack addict being thrown into the stock room of Drugmart and being told to keep my hands i...