Tuesday, 17 January 2017

Soon be Christmas.

With 2017 rocketing by at a breakneck pace already I have come up with a simple plan to keep the blog active until my schedule clears up a bit later in the year. Unfortunately the Mordheim painting challenge has been shelved due to real life affecting three of the four of us, so I need a replacement.

Each week I will be taking down an old White Dwarf magazine from the shelves and scanning a few select pages for inspiration and discussion. Who knows where it will lead?

We start with #131 (no reason, purely at random) and controversially skip straight past the article on Horus vs Emperor (we all know that fluff by now), leaving us with some lovely Eavy Metal pages, a fantasy townhouse modelling guide and two beautiful black and whites from Mighty Empires and Confrontation articles respectively.









Thursday, 27 October 2016

Mordheim: City of the Lead @ BOYL 2017

I have to bust this one out early as the rest of the month is jam-packed so it's now or never. I will go back to improve this one and pep the base up (will do that for all the minis at the same time I reckon so it looks cohesive).

Another model from Foundry's time warped wizards pack. This chap will be my warband leader and has the best kit (pistol, sword, helmet, armour and back-up mace).


All the models will be WYSIWYG and conform to the 500 crown limit, I'll so a halfway post with more details in January. I loved painting this one, wish I'd had more time this month to do a more complete job but I am running the Night of the Living Lead event at Foundry this weekend and my D&D campaigns have been demanding my painting time to the point where it wasn't possible.

I did a better job on the sample mini I was lucky enough to receive from macrocosm to celebrate their new Kickstarter, Dwarves at Arms. There are only three days to go so grab a look now if you haven't already. Dwarves at Arms (plus ogres and halflings too!)






I'll be using the dwarf, Lord Warmbread Saynsbury (it was supposed to be Warbeard but his Dad was too drunk to chisel properly when he registered the birth), as a cleric of Valaya and liason for the mercenary forces hoping to keep the forces of evil at bay in Saturday's game.

Thanks for stopping by!

Friday, 30 September 2016

Mordheim painting challenge and general catch-up.

Another massive dip in hobby productivity after the big blow-out that is Bring Out Your Lead comes to a close as hobby mojo returns. In truth, I've actually done loads of cool gaming but I just haven't had the time to properly document any of it.

My favourite highlight was when I GM'd the entire Blood Bath at Orc's Drift campaign in a single day. I rejigged it to run with the Warhammer Skirmish rules from the appendices of the 6th ed rules book and cut the number of basic troops in half. The actual run time was only about three or four hours because I set up the first three games to run simultaneously in about three square feet of space each. It was a real success and we all had loads of fun, but if you don't believe me check out this post from one of my players.

Blood Bath at Orc's Drift AAR.

The last thing I blogged about in the run-up to BOYL was the Tale of Four Oldhammerers painting challenge. I had already won some bragging rights by hitting the painting deadlines every time and scoring the most challenge points but that would count for nothing in the finale. I allied my Undead with James Taylor's Nurgle army and we fought the combined might of Steve's Slann and Chico's Hobgoblins. The game itself wasn't the best (although we had a few laughs along the way) but I always judge the success of a game by how much it is enjoyed by ALL participants. As is usually the way with games that lack a GM it turned into a one-sided affair quite quickly and James and I trounced the opposition thoroughly. It was a shame, because in our haste we never stopped to organise a GM or even a proper narrative. Steve and Chico will no doubt want to forget the game and the triumph seems hollow under those circumstances. Proof even Oldhammerers can forget their core values from time to time! At least I have a painted Undead army though!

The big game, just about to kick off.

Say what you like about the gameplay, the armies looked great. This is Chico's force on the far side of my stone circle terrain piece.

Steve's Slann prepare to march into a cloud of flies and poxed
 fume.

My Undead, thanks go to Golgfag AKA Paul for lending me movement trays.

James' beautifully painted Nurgle army. I am sure Steve would say it was a privilege to have his army blasted to smithereens by the sorcerous powers of those gorgeously hand-painted magic banners.


I also ran a small 'pathetic aesthetic' themed game at BOYL 16, using the stone circle as the focus.

A group of deserters fleeing the calamity at Hel Fenn stumble across a midnight ritual to reawaken an ancient von Carstein vampire from it's tomb.


What next? I have to do a final round of whip-cracking and organising for the Night of the Living Lead 5 which is coming up in a month at the Foundry, but mainly I have been working on the new To4O-inspired painting challenge. Mordheim: City of the Lead involves James, Chico, Steve and I painting one Mordheim mini a month and playing out a (GM'd and story-based) game of Mordheim at BOYL 17 next July. We are taking a relaxed approach (no points or anything) and just concentrating on painting up some fun minis. I have decided to paint up the unreleased ex-Citadel wizards set Foundry cast up for us plus a couple of freebies dished out at BOYL.

Month One. I'm not using them as magic users, they are merely researcher types naively exploring the Mordheim ruins. This will just count as a man with a club in the game.

Month Two. Man with hammer. Many thanks to Curtis Fell of Ramshackle Games for handing out this guy, I have appeased the Gods for a time by painting a free mini as swiftly as possible. Curtis' kindnesses and selfless contributions to the Oldhammer Comuunity are too numerous to recount but do not go unnoticed.

I have a background narrative written for them, I will do a post about it one month once once I have suitable pun names planned out.

Thanks for stopping by!


Saturday, 18 June 2016

A Tale of Four Oldhammerers, final month.

I spurned a painting day earlier in the month due to lack of mojo and what a mistake that turned out to be. 'Real Life' subsequently gave us a fascinating insight into childhood diseases and my complacency has been punished at every turn! We are almost back to normal healthwise thankfully but the backlog of things to do is looking deeply intimidating to say the least, so I had to finish and publish this morning no matter what.



Six skeletons with spear and shield, one with standard bearer upgrade, 82 points.





Boom, I'm done. Exactly 1000 points painted and ready for battle at BOYL 2016.

I'll do a final update post at the end of the month after the others have entered their final submissions.

Thanks for stopping by!


Saturday, 4 June 2016

A Tale of Four Oldhammerers. May score update.

The penultimate month is done and dusted, on to the finish line! Here are the standings as we leap the final hurdle and put our heads down for the last furlong.

Paul: Total Points Painted=918. Monthly Average=102. Overall Challenge Score=18.

Chico Total Points Painted=1000. Monthly Average=100 Overall Challenge Score=13.

James: Total Points Painted=825. Monthly Average=92. Overall Challenge Score=13.

Steve Total Points Painted=779. Monthly Average=87. Overall Challenge Score=11.

Follow their progress on these blogs:




I can't wait to play the finale game at this years Bring Out Your Lead event!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, 25 May 2016

A Tale of Four Oldhammerers: Month 9/10.

We are truly in the end game now! Steve posted early this month to put the pressure on and I responded by getting this war machine painted soon after. Thank goodness I did because I never found the time to finish the three crew until now, it's been a hectic month! I added in the last reaper to reach my target and maintain my monthly average (still at 102 points).

Undead Catapult and crew with upgraded Screaming Skull ammunition (85 points). One more Grim Reaper (14 points). Monthly total is 99 points.


Scores update for May to follow on the first of June.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday, 1 May 2016

Tale of Four Oldhammerers: April Points Tally.

The end of April heralds the end of month eight in the painting challenge. Only two more months remain before the end of the project! Here are the tallies so far (some of the values are merely best estimates due to mediocre record keeping on behalf of others!). :p

Paul: Total Points Painted=819. Monthly Average=102. Overall Challenge Score=16.

Chico Total Points Painted=783. Monthly Average=98 Overall Challenge Score=11

James: Total Points Painted=650. Monthly Average=81. Overall Challenge Score=11

Steve Total Points Painted=580. Monthly Average=73. Overall Challenge Score=9

Follow their progress on these blogs:

http://oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.co.uk/

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/

http://eldritchepistles.blogspot.co.uk/

Steve's brief challenge for 2nd place tails off, James continues to improve his standing and is finishing strongly (his results are easily the highest quality too, well done for that James).

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, 20 April 2016

A Tale of Four Oldhammerers month eight progress.

You may think I'm mad for slaving away at a painting challenge while the sun is out, but these just needed a few finishing touches and publishing. So I'll make a quick hash job of it and dash out for my annual supply of vitamin D! Score update to follow at the end of the month.

Time to ramp up the pressure on the others!

5 skeleton warriors at 11 points each and a standard for the unit costing 21 points. It's only 76 points in total but my monthly average is still above 100 keeping me on course for a maximum score. 


This hand weapon unit is done for this challenge, just a few spearmen and the skull thrower to go now ;)


Thanks for stopping by!

Thursday, 31 March 2016

Tale of Four Oldhammerers progress report.

The end of March heralds the end of month seven in the painting challenge. Month seven! Only three more months remain before the end of the project. Here are the tallies so far (some of the values are estimates due to mediocre record keeping on behalf of others!). :p

After a thorough audit, James benefits from the recount most, regaining a point lost when I missed a post of his in January.

Paul: Total Points Painted=743. Monthly Average=106. Overall Challenge Score=14.

Chico Total Points Painted=683. Monthly Average=98 Overall Challenge Score=9

James: Total Points Painted=470. Monthly Average=67. Overall Challenge Score=9

Steve Total Points Painted=520. Monthly Average=74. Overall Challenge Score=8

Follow their progress on these blogs:

http://oldhammeronabudget.blogspot.co.uk/

http://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.co.uk/

http://eldritchepistles.blogspot.co.uk/

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, 30 March 2016

I've been spring cleaning the blog as it's that time of year. I stopped short of adding gamboling lambs but hopefully things look a bit fresher anyway.

I have tweaked the name from The Black Hole to The Black Castle to reflect my main focus (which is an oldhammer undead army currently). The main site name is still warlordpaul.blogspot.co.uk so hopefully if I have got my incantations, rituals and unguents right there should be no interruption with the subscriptions. Let me know if all is well please somebody, if I get too much silence I will get back under the bonnet. Cheers!

Thanks for stopping by, normal service will resume shortly with the oldhammer painting challenge results for March.