Monday, 13 July 2026

The flicker of an old beacon thought lost in the Warp...

Well... this place isn't dead, checks last post date... 2023! Holy #@£&?!

It has, however, been gathering more dust than the old lead miniatures have in real life.


Look at that mountain (of lead!). Wonderful piece of new oldhammer art by Brendon Ward

The good news is that I'm still here, still alive, still collecting / painting miniatures, still thinking far too much about 2nd Edition 40k, old fantasy and the underhive. Also still convinced that I might get a game or two in occasionally.

Heroquest is a lot of fun when you control the monsters and try to kill off everyone.

Well actually I did get a game of new Heroquest in, which is exactly the same as the old Heroquest but with bigger miniatures (no Fimir, boo) and bigger map.

Rather than making grand promises about posting every week (we all know how those usually end), I'm simply aiming to get back into the habit of painting and hobbying again. One of which is Warhammer Quest and my slow collection of the separate heroes from the base game and then an attempt at laminating the rules for them.

A recent ebay purchase, a pit fighter ready to be re-painted.

Yes this is less full restoration and more of a hopeful bit of maintenance and nudge. I wonder if my paints are still good or rock solid, we'll see.

Thanks to anyone who's stopped by over the quiet times. I'll be going over some of the old posts to fix the imgur links. Hopefully there'll be something new for you to enjoy before too long.

Until next time.

Friday, 7 July 2023

Strike at Deanarm: Warhammer 40000 2nd Edition - 800 Point Battle Report: Chaos Space Marines vs Orks

It’s been a fair few months since a post on this blog. I put it down to a painting lull mainly. But today it’s Battle Report time! 

Notably Warhammer 40,000: 2nd Edition!

The Strike at Deanarm is a small encounter between a force of Orks and some Chaos Space Marines with 800 points a side. As this was the first game of 2nd in a very long time for both of us the armies were kept to a manageable size of 800 points.

Pre-game setup while rules and army lists are prepared.


I pre-selected wargear cards for both sides and also gave out a haywire grenade for dealing with vehicles, as I realised the forces built were a bit light on anti-vehicle weapons.

So let’s look at the two forces:

Ork Army - Mission: Engage and Destroy


The Warboss is ready to wreck the Chaos force.

Warboss Le Green: Kustom Shoota, Power Fist, Bolt Pistol and Mega Armour

Mekanik: Melta Gun, Bolt Pistol, Eavy Armour, krak grenades

Painboy: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour, Sword, haywire grenade

Runtherd: Bolt Pistol, Flak Armour

Weirdboy + Two Minderz: Weirdboy Staff, Bolt Pistols

7 Goff Orks led by a Nob: Bolt Pistols, Axes, Flak Armour and 1 chainsword.

5 Stormboys led by a Drillboss: Jump packs, Bolt Pistols, Axes, frag grenades, Flak Armour and 1 plasma gun

10 Gretchin: Autoguns

Ork Dreadnought: 2 Power Claws, lascannon and Heavy Bolter

Scorcher: Heavy Flamer

Splatta Kannon w/two gretchin crew.

- - - - -

Chaos Space Marine Army - Mission: Dawn Raid


Chaos Space Marines ready to remove these Orks from the planet.

Chaos Lord Xamahato: Terminator Armor, Combi-Twin Bolter, Chain Fist, Haywire Grenade. 

Chaos Sorcerer Champion: Bolt Pistol, Frag Grenades, Mastery Level 2, Bionic Leg

4 Chaos Space Marines: 3x Bolt Guns, Missile Launcher, 1 chainsword 

4 Chaos Space Marine Terminators: 2x Chain-axe, 2x Combi-Flamer, Combi-Melta, 2x Power Mace, 4x Terminator, Twin Bolter

Chaos Dreadnought: Twin-Linked Bolter, Twin-Linked Heavy Bolter, Power Claw

- - - - -

The battlefield had a wide variety of scenery strewn about it and with that missions, psychic powers, deployment and who starts first were decided. Only after which I did strategy cards and forgot they can effect deployment. So after re-drawing the strategy cards we were ready to begin.

Except it's strategy card time already as the Ork force unveils a special issue a quick gathering of all the wargear cards and they get a Toxin Grenade which is completely useless against space marines so the redraw is a Neuro-Gauntlet!

Thursday, 5 January 2023

Galvanise the memory cells with Eavy Metal!: Part 5 (White Dwarf 149)

 Oh look here it's a New Year and another White Dwarf  blog post  this time No.149, let's dive into the goodness.

We should take a minute to talk about this bonkers cover first. I know they take all comers in the imperial guard but these grey trouser, blond tough guys are something else. Did they fall down that hole or make it themselves?? Either way the commissar clearly has trouble keeping track of his regiment as they have the issue standard happy birthday 4th regiment badges.


Moving on we now get to some soldiers of the Empire. First with the mighty and now very expensive War Wagon. It's a great looking model and these are some bright colour choices, even a red morning star! 

Not sure I recognise Thaindon and Kargos High Elf Dragonlord and mount. IT's a nice looking grumpy dragon though. On doing some rummaging around google I found this nugget of gold about the pair.

Amongst the Dragonlords of the Elves Thaindon’s name is held in awe, for it was he who hunted the Fire-Drake Kargos, scorcher of a hundred castles, and bent him to his will. Thaindon triumphed in a mighty battle against the dragon-wyrm, and earned both the beast’s respect and the right to ride him in battle. Together they are rightly feared throughout the Elven Kingdoms.

Wednesday, 16 November 2022

Stargrave - Skaven are even out here?!

On the galactic highway that is outer space the crews of various ships and cruisers seek adventure, loot and a snazzy stone for warp travel, maybe.

Veer-Myn artwork from the Deadzone game.

Oh my how long has it been since I updated this blog!! what have I been up to? Well summer never lends itself to painting for me, to much to do outside and other activities. Have I painted anything you may ask, and the answer is yes but it hasn't been overly oldhammer. The most recent off the paint table are the miniatures from The Thing Board Game and Cosmic Frog but I'll save those for another day. In the meantime...

Welcome to Stargrave and my crew. A game of mercenary bands or group of disparate folk trying to get by in the unfriendly cosmos. As you can see my crew is a morphed conversion of genestealer cultists and skaven minatures.

The crew line up, loot maybe nearby to steal!