Hi everyone! Hope you’re all staying safe out there in this unexpected and quite frankly crazy times. Finally the creation of our very own Instagram page (Go drop us a follow at instagram.com/alwaysstrikeslast) has encouraged me to stop being lazy, and start posting once again. If you have come from our Instagram page, thank you for stopping by to check us out, we really do appreciate it!
Don’t we look good 😉
As we have never really formally introduced ourselves, the above picture is us! For reference, Alex is the long haired one on the right and I’m the messy haired one on the left. This picture was taken just over a year ago in April 2019, when we had just placed second place in one of the semi finals for the Games Workshop Schools League tournament. For those of you who have probably not heard of it, this is a tournament run by GW in which teams from different secondary schools around the country play Warhammer 40k (this last year it was Kill Team ), firstly in regional heats at local stores then a semi final and possibly final at Warhammer World in Nottingham. This was our last year competing, and despite playing well and qualifying second we missed out on the final due to some odd way the ruling of the teams worked. It was a shame to suffer this setback, but it was a great experience, and personally made me realise how much I enjoy the game in a competitive sense.
In terms of my personal hobby journey I have been playing/collecting/painting(ish) for about 5 or so years now I think, first gotten into 40k by Alex, and my wallet has unfortunately taken the brunt of my plastic crack addiction. I tend to suffer from ‘ivegotabigpileofgreyplastic’ syndrome which is not ideal, but hopefully with some encouragement and some inspiration from amazing people on Instagram, I can fuel my own motivation!
Thanks for reading, I hope to put up some more posts of past and present work soon, including a large Deathwatch project I am about to start…..
Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a handful of small projects, which should all hopefully be surfacing on the blog soon. The first of these is the unit of Chainrasps from the first issue of the Mortal Realms magazine.
As I mentioned previously , I picked these up with the intention of practicing my painting on models that usually would not fall within the scope of any of my armies. These models certainly achieved that, as the ghostly blue colour is unlike anything that I’ve worked on before.
I’ve only completed half of the unit so far, however I’m certainly looking forward to finishing the rest of them. You may notice that the models are not yet based, and that is simply so that I can base the whole completed unit at the same time for a consistent effect. I haven’t decided yet how I will base them, although I am hoping to shy away from just a plain graveyard effect, so feel free to drop me any off the wall suggestions.
Keep an eye out for more posts popping up over the next couple of days; now that Wetherspoons is closed due to the coronavirus outbreak, I have much more time to work on miniatures and blog posts!
In my local newsagents this morning, I spotted out of the corner of my eye a magazine with the distinctive aura of a Games Workshop product. Sure enough it was the first issue of the new Age of Sigmar magazine subscription, titled “Mortal Realms”. Attractively priced at just £2.99, and containing 13 miniatures, I slapped it onto the counter with my energy drink and it came home with me.
The offending sprues that caught my eye in the store…
Although it is a typical marketing scheme for subscriptions like these to have enticing and exciting first issues, I was still pleasantly surprised at the sheer content of the package: A total of 6 various magazines, sheets and documents, a range ruler, 6 D6s and last but certainly not least, 3 Stormcast Eternals and 10 Chainrasps. Considering that this exact Chainrasp sprue is sold in a box from GW at a hefty £25, id say that £2.99 is pretty good value for everything we get in this first issue.
Before I go any further and delve into the details of the included items and content, I do want to point out that I am clearly not the intended audience for this product. Even though I am fairly new to Age of Sigmar, I have been in the hobby of wargaming for nearly 9 years, and even back when I started out, I had already been building Airfix models for around 2 years. This subscription is clearly intended for those who are entirely new to wargaming as a concept, so as well as discussing the sheer good value of this item for existing hobbyists, I am also going to touch on what I think about the product for new hobbyists.
So as I mentioned before there’s a whole heap of glossy paper based material included, as you would expect for a magazine, and despite it all looking very shiny and exciting, a large portion of it is just promotional material; a double sided poster and a handful of leaflets trying to convince you to commit to the subscription. A few things do stand out though. Firstly there’s a small, almost brochure like document titled “War in the Underworld” This contains a map of the Realm of Death, and plenty of lore to read into if you’re captivated by the story of Age of Sigmar. This sheet is hole punched, as is typical of these sorts of magazines, and the subscription service promises binders to keep this sort of sheet in, supposedly there will be more of this content with each issue. In addition to this there is another document, the thickest one included. This is the core of the magazine, and contains a whole bunch of information. Firstly there is another lore section, providing detail about the included Stormcasts and Nighthaunt models, as well as some very general lore for those who haven’t ever been introduced to Age of Sigmar. In the middle of the book are the instructions for assembling the miniatures, these instructions are typical of GW, however they are preceded by a small section of general information for those who have never assembled miniatures before. Finally, the booklet is finished off with a section of “rules”. This section describes a small minigame, loosely based on the Age of Sigmar core rules. As an experienced gamer, this ruleset seemed boring and overly simple, yet when examined as what it’s supposed to be, it is excellent. For new gamers, this small scenario, played on a supplied 11 x 9 inch mat, introduces the concepts of measuring distances, rolling a “3+”, removing casualties and models taking wounds. To anyone familiar with wargaming, all of this seems trivial, but for somebody who is entirely new, this simple, clearly presented version of things that we take for granted is extremely valuable. Presumably, as more issues are released, the rules contained within will become closer and closer to what we know as the full game of Age of Sigmar, and in my opinion, that is a much better method than attempting to teach somebody the entire game all at once.
Now onto the miniatures. As mentioned there are a total of 13 miniatures in the box, 3 Stormcasts and 10 Cahinrasps. As with the models found in starter sets, these are all mono pose, snap fit miniatures. Not a bad thing by any means, however it does limit our opportunities to buy duplicates of the issue to form our armies, since the models’ poses will be duplicated. For new players however, push fit models are great, as it eliminates the need for glue to be used, and makes the assembly of the miniatures fairly straightforward. That being said, I did run into a few issues here, mainly to do with gaps. This might not bother a newer hobbyist, however I found it extremely difficult not to notice the cracks where parts meet, especially along the Stormcasts’ shoulder pads, and the Chainrasps’ rags. I for one will be making a small effort to fill those gaps before painting, as I would recommend to any more serious hobbyists, that being said however, I don’t think any new players should be concerned by them. Aside from this, the models do look pretty nice, even though the Chainrasps are a sprue that we have seen before, and I will be certainly be painting them up, just for the sake of practising my technique on models that I usually wouldn’t have purchased.
I spent around half an hour putting the Stormcasts together, and another 40 minutes on the Chainrasps. I was surprised how few mould lines were present, however it did look as though the sprues and models had been designed to favour gaps over mould lines. As mentioned, I will spend some time filling those gaps before painting, and I will share the finished minis here when they’re painted.
Overall I was pretty happy with this product and for the price, I recommend even experienced hobbyists pick it up; even if you’re only planning to use the Chainrasps as some sort of ghosties in your next D&D campaign. For £2.99 you get a hell of a lot of models. As for new players, I do think that this magazine, and its subsequent issues, is a great way to get into the hobby, however I would also urge caution, as these subscriptions can get pretty costly. As always thanks for reading, and don’t forget to check back here for the painted minis, and maybe even some reviews of the next few issues!
So as I mentioned in my last post, my US Airborne force only comes to 800pts, just shy of the 1K that I like to run in Bolt Action. So I decided to keep an eye out on eBay for a great deal on some second hand miniatures, just to boost the army up on a small budget. I soon found this listing with only a single bid, and decided to take a look. After studying the out of focus and upside down image, I eventually had to message the seller, since I couldn’t even tell if the miniatures were the metal models that I was looking for, or the newer plastic kit, which despite being great, depicts the US Airborne in late war gear, which doesn’t match my existing army. Luckily the models were metal, so I placed my bid Sunday evening, and yesterday I received the package…
Upon removing the outer tape and cardboard, I found a small tupperware, containing 10 models that could well have featured in this glorious video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3p_VuPIS2c
A wonderful selection of “pro painted” models… You can actually see in this picture that some of them are based on coins!
Once I’d got these models out of the box, I realised I hadn’t just got a selection of riflemen. The thick layers of paint were hiding 6 riflemen, a medic, a forward observer, and a bazooka team! A good result that makes this lot even better value, in terms of points per pound.
A closer picture of the models out of the tupperware. I’m somewhat thankful that the previous owner didn’t take this shot, it might have attracted more bidders to his auction!
Obviously these paint jobs had to go, and so did the mismatch of horribly clunky bases, with far too much sand and even some two pence pieces instead of plastic bases. I resorted to the classic method of stripping: methylated spirits. There’s plenty of tutorials on how to strip miniatures all over the internet, so I won’t go into full detail here, but I will share some of my photos from the process.
Bath Time!
Even after the first dip in the spirits, the models were still not fully clean, that dark primer you can see in the recesses just would not come off!
After the second bath in the spirits, I managed to get enough paint off of the models to be happy to paint over them. First however, I started by rebasing them, since the original bases were a complete write off, and didn’t match my already decided scheme for this army. On the models that I have already completed and shared a few days ago, I actually textured the bases prior to priming them, so I repeated that process on these guys for consistency.
Stripped, rebased, and blu-tacked to a biscuit tin ready for priming
After giving the models a coat of GW’s chaos black primer, this is what the results were. Despite the camera struggling to pick up the detail of the pure black models, I was overall very happy with the finished results. Obviously these boys are not yet combat ready, but once I’ve got them painted to match the already completed portions of the army, they will be fit to fight another day!
As mentioned in the last post, stay tuned for more updates on this army as I work on them over the coming weeks! -Alex
I’ve been into Bolt Action for a good few years now after discovering it at an LGS in a town I was visiting. I’ve played on and off, and collected plenty of Warlord Games’ awesome minis, but as with many other games due to my lack of time these days, my interest has slipped a little. Recently however, a good friend of mine decided to get into the game, and being a wargamer already, he picked up the rules very quickly. Since he decided to play, and subsequently purchased a German force, I decided it was high time that I got around to fixing up my old US Airborne, and so I whipped up a few test models with a fresh paintjob.
These two minis will eventually be the officer and his assistant in the army, and overall, I am really quite happy with the finish. I managed to turn these guys around in an afternoon, which is fairly good going, especially considering that I shouldn’t have to finish too many models in a veteran based army such as the Airborne.
Speaking of the rest of the army, after a quick tot up with the US army book, it looks as though I have around 600pts worth of Airborne infantry models. This provides me with a pretty solid start for an army, especially when I can couple them with my M18 Hellcat to give them some fire support. That will however still leave me around 200pts short of 1k, so once I’ve finished up the models here, I’ll look into making an order from Warlord Games for another one of the infantry box sets!
On a side note, I’m still getting to grips with my new camera, and as such not all of my photos are coming out exactly as I would like them just yet. I tried shooting these minis with a warmer, more yellow light, and I’m still not sure if I like the results or not. For the colour scheme that I’ve chosen on the models though, it does look better than the very white flash of my camera. If anybody has any tips or experience they would be willing to share, then I would love to hear it!
Stay tuned to see the rest of the army as I work on it over the coming weeks… -Alex
In my last post I discussed how I would be getting into Age of Sigmar using my old Dwarfs army, So I have decided to share the painted portion of the army here. There is much more of this army in various stages of completion, and I would love to share my progress as I continue to paint them, especially now that Im working towards an army for a new game!
The first unit that I completed, and the core of this army, is a block of 20 warriors. In my casual games I actually use these guys as Longbeards, since the real miniatures for those are far too expensive.
You may notice that the bulk of this unit is made up of the monopart Battle for Skull Pass warriors. I simply love those sculpts, despite there only being a handful of different styles available, each one has fair bit of character, and they are much easier to work with than the multi-part plastic kit, where you often end up with huge gaps between the beards and torsos. I have often considered substantially expanding this unit, but since these minis are now OOP, I have been held back a little in getting hold of them.
In game, I usually accompany this unit with a dwarf lord, acting as my army’s general. I actually use a converted model to represent a lord on shield-bearers.
Also using parts from Battle for Skull Pass, I converted this model initially just for a bit of fun, before realising that he fills the same base area as a set of shield-bearers. Since this old chap may be the only mounted dwarf model I’ve ever come across, I always have a blast using him, especially when the pony (representing the shield bearers) gets chance to attack.
The other character that is currently finished is this Runelord
This guy is usually fighting alongside my Hammerers, however they’re still painted up in a paint scheme that I was never happy with, so I don’t think I’ll post them here today.
The other rank and file unit that I have fully painted and based is a squad of miners. These are also mainly the Skull Pass minis, but since that set only came with 8 miners, there are a few stand in models to make this unit up to 10.
As much as I love the idea of miners, this unit hasn’t ever really performed overly well in any games, so despite them being one of my painted units, they’re often left behind. Unfortunately there seems to be no new profile for them in Cities of Sigmar, so it seems that they may never have chance to see a real comeback.
Finally I have a pair of Cannons, the very same two cannons that made a meal of a high elf dragon in my first ever game of Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
In games of old Warhammer Fantasy, I never write a list without these, especially when I can give them the Rune of Forging to avoid misfires. Despite the dwarf cannon sepcifically being missing from the Cities of Sigmar book, I am hoping that most of my casual gaming partners will be happy with me using these as Hellstorm Rockets from the Ironweld Arsenal, which will allow them to keep performing well in a second game system.
Thats all I have to show you in terms of finished minis in this army. I have many more that are WIP, including a Gyrobomber, which is very nearly finished, many units such as Thunderers, Hammerers and custom Longbeards, and a handful more characters. I have to say I am guilty of having used the unfinished models in games in the past, however I have since decided to try to refrain from that in the future. Comments and criticism on the models (and my beginner photography!) are always welcome, and I will ensure to share the rest of the army here as I make progress on it. Thanks for looking!
Back in 2015 when Age of Sigmar was released, I have to honestly say that I didn’t give it the warmest reception. I played a handful of games, at my local club and store, and really could not get on with the game. Maybe the issue was with the fact that I had been so invested in the Old World lore, maybe it was that the “points” system in the game was simply each player taking an equal number of models. Either way, the game back then wasn’t for me.
I kept playing WHFB with my old armies. Despite selling off my Empire and Lizardmen to fund Bolt Action models and a new guitar amp, I kept hold of my beloved Dwarf army, as well as my small Skaven force, picking up games whenever somebody at the local club was willing. Over this time, very little caught my interest from Age of Sigmar, although thats not to say nothing did; The Nighthaunt are a stunning set of minis, the Gloomspire Gitz feel like a very natural and welcome progression for the Night Goblins, and the Endless spells are simply a very cool concept, much nicer than simply using a counter to mark the old remains in play spells. None of these were enough to draw my attention though, until recently.
When the Cities of Sigmar book came out, I initially dismissed it as I assumed it was just a freshly copyrighted empire battletome. When I spoke to the manager of my local GW however, who after nearly 10 years really knows how to sell things to me, I found out that many of the old dwarf units would be available in the book! This was certainly a big deal to me, and after chatting for an hour or so, with the store copy of the book and a quick tutorial of the core Age of Sigmar rules, I left the shop with this little haul.
The Gaming book itself serves as an excellent little rulebook, sacrificing the huge lore and hobby sections that were part of the WHFB rulebooks that I know so well, in favour of supplying core rules at a more than reasonable price. The hardback Cities of Sigmar Battletome feels just like the Army Books that I’m used to, even if it does contain both Elves and Dwarves, and in addition, I was lucky enough to find one of the very last sets of the Warscroll Cards, long after they had sold out online.
So far I have only skimmed the books over, but I’m honestly quite excited to be trying out a new game system, especially when it finally fulfils my age old dream of my dwarfs being allowed to use steam tanks! Once I have decided on a basic army list, I will share it here, and then swing down to the store or club, where hopefully a more experienced AoS player will be willing and able to guide me along a little. And that’s the story of how a single book release with no new models was able to convert a diehard WHFB player to AoS! So keep a lookout here for plenty of AoS content in the future!
Welcome back to the blog! After a three year hiatus we’re looking to get started posting content again. We’ve moved over to wordpress to help give us more control over our content, and hopefully in a few months or so when we start getting some traffic flowing again, I’ll start paying for a domain name and external hosting to improve the site further!
For now the old Facebook page will still stand, but over the next week or so I’ll hopefully get that updated. In addition, this site does still need some work doing. The new gallery page is still filled with stock photos until I can take some shots on my new camera, and there’s a distinct lack of content here just yet, since we won’t be transferring the old posts across to here.
Hopefully we can build up a wide range of content here. With those 3 years of extra hobby experience under our belts, I’m sure that the new posts will be far superior to the work we showed in the past, allowing us to eventually build up a little bit of a following! We would love it if you could join us on this new venture.
), firstly in regional heats at local stores then a semi final and possibly final at Warhammer World in Nottingham. This was our last year competing, and despite playing well and qualifying second we missed out on the final due to some odd way the ruling of the teams worked. It was a shame to suffer this setback, but it was a great experience, and personally made me realise how much I enjoy the game in a competitive sense.
Always Strikes Last 