Step by Step: Painting Crystal Objective Markers.

This tutorial is a step by step guide to painting crystal objective markers, you can quite easily change the colours in any way you wish to suit yourself or tie in with your own army and can quite easily utilise the techniques used for painting crystals to paint crystal weapons on "Necrons" or "Power weapons" for various Warhammer 40,000 armies.

A selection of paint brushes, an airbrush (not essential), black undercoat (spray paint or airbrush paint), a selection of Citadel Colour, plus Foundation paints plus Washes (mentioned at each stage of the tutorial), plenty of clean water, and a lamp with daylight bulb for painting and patience.

I actually took part in a Warhammer 40,000 Tournament last weekend!

I’ve been an avid hobbyist, in particular, mainly as a miniature painter for a long, long time. But didn't really get into tournament gaming as such, until 2010. I spent the next year or so going to various events. But things change in the real world, so last year, after the birth of my son, I took a bit of a step back from gaming and became more of a collector, maker and painter once more. However now that my son is a toddling fourteen month old, it is now possible for me to go and take part in tournaments and events again.

The remainder of this post is all about the event I attended last weekend at “The Sanctuary Gaming Centre” in Sutton in Ashfield, Nottinghamshire, on the 15th of December.

First post: Ramblings of a Hobbyist…

One of the things I enjoy most about being a “Hobbyist” is that I don't just have one hobby, I have many. I have in the past and still do flit from hobby to hobby, each one feeding my imagination in some way, providing me with enjoyment and nurturing my creative side.
I've been a hobbyist for a long time. In fact, since I was a little kid in my opinion, when I first picked up a pencil and started exploring my creative side by drawing my collection of Lego knights defending their castle from and defeating the evil black knights in battle, or drawing fighter jets and other fascinating military images inspired by my first ambition of joining the military, (an ambition that changed, as ambitions sometimes do.)
Or spending hours reading sci-fi, fantasy, action, mystery and military books. Where I'd be imagining myself as the hero in the story, defeating the bad guy and saving the day. Art and reading were, my first real interests and were soon joined by an avid interest in computer games, table top wargaming, other art forms like Photography, graphics, animation and later a different sort of art form, the martial arts.
This blog is in essence aimed as a further means of enjoying my hobbies, in particular, table top wargaming; by sharing with other hobbyists and anyone else interested in my ramblings, what I'm up to. Whether it's making miniatures, taking part in games and tournaments, writing tutorials or just reading the latest sci-fi and fantasy novel that takes my interest.

My aim is to post something on here, as regularly as real life allows me to, so thank you for reading and until the next time...

Step by Step: How to make a “Wrecked or Blown up” Land Raider.

One of the things I enjoy most about Warhammer 40,000, table top wargaming in general and being a “Hobbyist” is that it’s fun and that I get crazy ideas because of it! 

Sometimes these ideas are triggered by my own imagination and creativeness, others by a games awesome fluff and background. The latest army theme that I’m using to create an army, my next unneeded (but wanted) purchase or something that just plain pops into my head as an experiment to be undertaken.

In the case of this article, the original idea was inspired by a random thought that I had during a game with my Grey Knights army at the “Rolling Thunder” tournament a few years back. When one of my Land Raider Redeemers had suffered a large amount of damage and been blown up, my opponent and I used dice to mark out where the Land Raider had been. I thought, “It’d look way cooler if I’d a wrecked and blown up Land Raider to place on the table instead!”

Thus I became rather obsessed with this idea; and since then I’ve created both a wrecked and blown up Land Raider to use during my games. I thought I’d share with my fellow hobbyists how I actually created them, so that anyone who wished to, could create their own.