Distopus: opus mais historia re upload

Friday 27 January 2023

opus mais historia re upload

At forest edge the ambling bellykose had another of the daughters, a young one rash and fearless, who had flown down to avenge her sisters death

A second thrumming and two more grizzled agents were at the Inquisitor Lords side ,

autopistolwip and shotgunpumping violence was spat out of their barely controlled rage.

" For the Empraarghh,,, "

The harpies were now fighting for survival not for territory , if they had the notion to think they would realise how badly they under appreciate their enemies motivation... hunger.

But these harpies didn't think they were animals of pure instinct and their instinct said attack, and so they did.

The doddermen were out flanked , the two remaining cult leaders had noticed the natives battle and thought it best to join in the bloodlust.

Another prize for the patriarch. His family dead the winged beast has one last ditch attempt to rid his home of the invaders, The harpy king picks up a fully ripe dodderman and drops him amongst his kin

The resulting explosion sends the remainder of the doddermen back into safety of the Arkke Walde

Nocturbulous astounds his retainers by single handedly banishing the remaining demonettes

with prescription plasma shots

The last two cultists skulk off into hiding amongst the glowing runic rocks, whilst those that looked up would notice a lamenting lone father mournfully takes to the sky.

Phineus lay still.. Pale milk eyes wept condensed sorrow. How unfairly he had been played, banished to the Arkke's end. Set adrift in the rift of menjoosa. A lonely disrememberd place. Oft racked with warp fiends and unpronounceable things . A broken fusion of ship and rock, rebuilt as an unfathomable tzeentchian maze, tethered to the Arkke with chains of despair. His crime was to be a seer.. Not a shoddy charlatan a well known Haruspex ..a visionary Auger who foretold the downfall of the pandoricalle. Caste out amongst his beloved stymphalian birds..

Ocine , hark the sounds of the birds it yieldeth truth for man

alites, Observe the birds in flight it yieldeth truth of the gods

Many lines old, hair lank, knuckles rubbed and knobbled knees. Capricious gods, have had their fill. The seductress tempts his belly one last time. Sweet Emprah forgive me, I know not where I am nor what I do. Lost amongst the Æthere am I. Bereft my Hodiimadod clansmen, bereft the yggdrasilliume, bereft my home world, bereft my universe? Lost in the fog, give me a sign ..I yield my heart upon the plinth, my savant eyes ablind . Pray let it end.

Odoriferous air respired his lungs . What sweet smell is this now , chargrilled groxmeat , honymead wine.. Olfactory heaven.. and how my stomach aches.. I beg thee leave me hence. One small morsel is all I ask , to be eaten in my own comfort..

Phineus, dragged himself upon his feet. This time, this last time, for I have nothing left to give.

He shuffled across the debris strewn floor, footafoot until the plinth barred his way.. Fragrant, incense aroma .. Empty gut railed upon his reason, just one mouthful....prehensile fingers coveted the banquet.. if I am quick.. it shall be in me before I know any different. No sooner had he grabbed at a plate, than it turned foul... Graveolent and noxious fumes gagged his throat as he fell upon his knees.

The malodurous stench brought again his nightmares, made real by arrant desire.. his long beloved auspices, the stymphalian birds. Made anew, foul and debased as any bird could be.

Cowering under plinth once more, Phineus covered his ears to the cawing of his damnation.

Hello again .. happy new year to everyone hope the winter holidays were enjoyable for all..

I didn't have much time for the hobby over Christmas and had a bit of a lull in my creativity so I thought I would try to jump start my year with a nice blog . Last year was amazing regarding the hobby for me . I had a lot of trepidation when I started this blog and moved away form the safety of a the dakka dakka forums just over a year ago. The idea was to try and up my game and take my hobby experience to the next level. Well I think it's fair to say that the june Inquivitational the yggdrasillumme event and the Requiem were all pretty special days that will hold a place in my heart for a long time to come. But what now .... what's next...

Building the Ygg board was the single most focused creative thing I have ever done , three months of day and night dedication, the Tor gillead took one month by comparison It was a real honour to be invited to join Mr Blanche PDH Rise and Fulgrim in a gaming session. It was a pleasure and a pain to build and I doubt I would have had the dedication were it not for the inspiring work of others in the hobby . I feel like I have learnt so much and met so many great folks since I came back to the hobby. Its actually very overwhelming when I actually think about it all. The Hobby can be a wonderful thing ... It has helped me through some of the toughest times of my life .. its no secret that I reignited my hobby experience due to been unemployed for a long time . conversely this has allowed me to have the time to tackle large projects ... I am not sure how this next year will pan out for me ...in hobby terms .. I tend not to plan things in advance ..in fact I get quite frustrated when I know I have to do something in the future... I put that down to my nomadic childhood ;-)

I feel my hobby time might be reduced this year ..as fun as building huge things is , it doesn't pay the rent :-( My real life responsibilities seem to be mounting up. at the moment.. I have plans afoot though

But just to make it real I am going to type it out .

February should see another outing to the Ygg .. I am really looking forward to this actually ..I may attempt to build some more scenery .. not too big just something to wet my appetite for a gaming sesh! I have a few ideas floating around but i don't really really want to commit to anything just yet.

maybe a railline gandy dancer or a nasty silo husk lice collector garamentees possibly a mauldy warp or mangii trout.

a repaint of the illium or at least a few new gang members .. looking at the lotr goblins for these..

The Next Inqvitational will require some new new Vendrake stuff and possible scenery , thinking of the world of cydonia or baruach

http://dalthus.wikispaces.com/Sub-Sector+Phrell

and finally some fantasy stuff ..

not sure how much of this will see the light of day but thats whats in my noggin at the moment.

on another note i just wanted to share this wonderful work with you , its from the Danish forum powerfist.dk you might have seen some of the images in the inspiration gimme bar on the right build a warband challenge http://www.powerfist.dk/forum/index.php?topic=61340.0

some really inspiring Inq28 stuff going on there . thanks to Thomas of the wicked workshop blog for linking it ;-) http://thewickedworkshop.blogspot.co.uk/2012/07/just-finished-this-guy-apologies-for.html#comment-form

and noted here too on the great imitation of life blog

http://imitationoflifeminiatures.blogspot.co.uk/

also noticed some rather amazing terrain here by trull

http://fantastische-welten.blogspot.co.uk/p/winhall.html

and digital remake

http://ennelia.com/winhall.html

and cool contemporary dios here

http://www.erintyner.com/half-awake.html

fantasy inspiration

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/fantasy+art

http://faelands.tumblr.com/archive

http://neverending-fairytale.tumblr.com/

http://fantasy-never-dies.tumblr.com/

industrial stuff

http://www.industrialbritain.co.uk/links.html

http://pcgladiator.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/crowds.html

and Phiq's wondeful Inspiration blog

http://flabergastertron.tumblr.com/

and finally because I couldn't post a blog with a picture of something cool here is puppet master I took this photo a while back in Leeds and forgot to post it ;-)

Fantasy ( well from the point of View of Kid growing up in Northern England in the 80's )

A few weeks back Pete (PDH) Commented on The spiky rat pack boys blog , Ize Colts The Golden Age of Gaming. to quote him

“ at some point we should all venture into the Old World too.. “

I am sure most folks reading this use Fantasy Miniatures as par the course , whether within a 40k context , (after all its Science Fantasy not Science Fiction )or just plain old Fantasy. I know I have a fair few Fantasy Miniatures in my collection. But even with all the amazing miniatures that are out there today, I still have failed to build anything that is specifically Fantasy. This wasn’t always the case mind you. The Industry after all is based upon fantasy, and I know my first forays into the hobby were all fantasy. I Wondered why I have left Fantasy on the sidelines for so long , Is it because 40k can so easily incorporate any fantasy ideas, Is it because the community in general is geared towards 40k because its easier to get into, or is it something else ? I have pondered these questions for the past two weeks, and decided to fully understand what fantasy is. Is to know where it came from and why we do it I thought some research was in order.

In the beginning there was Tolkien. Before Joseph Campbell's Hero with a thousand faces and the Star Wars mono myths that followed , we had Middle Earth.

Although a footnote would also place another great fantasy character before this .. By the pulp writer Robert E.Howard Conan the Barbarian and the mythical Hyborian Age

Then we had The Dungeon Duo Gygax and Arneson Inspired by the work other folks were doing within the historical war gaming community creating rules for war games set within the Middle Earth and other popular fantasy novels this intrepid duo created the first Published rules for Miniature fantasy wargames and Role-playing. It is curious to note that they didn't include a fictional world for the setting of D&D rather a template for games masters to create their own worlds.

Then came Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson The owl and weasel and the White dwarf proper , Games workshop and the multitude of choose your own adventure fantasy books.

It is at this point I became aware of fantasy as we know it now, not the fantasy of my early childhood , Enid Blyton's brownies, Pixies, fairy’s and friendly Moonface men, This was a Punk fantasy with attitude mushrooms and manticores. Heroic knights Palladin roamed murky woods for solitary wizards Towers . It was a true fantasy a world away from Humdrum reality The Dungeon Duo had spawned a monster and talented writers and Artists clamoured to populate our conscious with their myths. The vast array of books and games films comics all fought for our attention , with new mythical lands created daily , and populated with amazing art and great stories .

Magnamund and The lone wolf series By Joe Dever , an Advanced Dungeons and dragons champion

Orb and its plethora of books and characters created by the The then assistant editors of white dwarf magazine Mark Smith & Jaime Thomson at the bequest of Ian Livingstone (who needed more writers)

Josh kirby of Discworld fame illustrated the covers of the duel Master series

Talisman of death interior Illustration By Bob Harvey

But most of all Titan. Games workshop creators Ian Livingstone and Steve Jackson Gm'ed us all with its Fighting Fantasy world its bizarre characters and its three continent sworth of sword & sorcery

Allansia ,Khull& The precursor Old world

Titan Cover by Chris Achilleos

Edited by Mark Gascoign

A Titan town, Sorcery map and Allansia & kakhabad in the (Old world) Illustration by John Blanche

Russ Nicholson The Artist responsible for the interior Illustrations of warlock on Fire top Mountain

The Front Cover By Peter Andrew Jones

When I think of Fantasy I still think of this time, Bastard swords, skill stamina and luck .A plethora of illustrations by talented artists such as John Blanche, Russ Nicholson, Ian Livingstone,Ian Mcaig , John Sibbick, Bob Harvey, Gary chalk, Fred Gambino and Peter Andrew Jones, These visionaries etched out a distinctive feel of British fantasy Art. That was to pave the way for the next step..

Turn to page 101 to continue ..

Page 101

Warhammer fantasy battle/Roleplay and the Old World

Richard Halliwell Rick Priestly Bryan Ansell and Graham Eckel

Although the game has its origins from as early as 1978 , I only became aware of it four years after its official 1983 1^st edition launch in the balmy summer of 1987

The Old World was different to regular Fantasy It had Guns !, it had lawyers !, It had poison grenade throwing Ratmen !. It had one eyed rapist monsters. ! Needless to say it was different to nearly every other fantasy setting I had seen. And to be honest as kid I just didn’t get it. (Which was fine as it wasn’t intended for kids really. it was too different. I wanted my knights to have shiny armour and American smiles, I wanted to save the maiden and be lavished with gold for my troubles, then sit back and sip a long pint of mead whilst being serviced by a buxom wench. The old world said you can do that but what about those northern implacable chaos Hordes .. It felt like you couldn’t win the war in the old world, yes you could kill your enemies, and win temporary glory but there would be more and eventually you would die, It was not about glory it felt like it was about survival.

John Blanche

Paul Bonner

Russ Nicholson

Ian Miller

Even though I started off reading the sorcery series, set in another old world with its twisted and contorted inhabitants, rendered by none other than John Blanche himself. This also was marketed at adults see above. It was still a fantasy book that I was in control of, I had the power to cheat and win and be the hero, the New old world was far more complex and real.. knights were often old men with foppish hats and wispy beards,

It was set in a bizarre Germanic pseudo Holy Roman Empire, as envisioned by a tormented demon ridden Albrecht Durer. It was dark and scary. That is until Heroquest came out and made it quite palatable for kids like me. Now I could have the best of both old worlds, be the hero I had always wanted to be, but in fully imagined world, with great miniatures as well. I could dungeon crawl role-play or be the general of an army. I could read books about this land and look at stunning paintings , rendered by new old masters.

And then 40k came along and I could do all that and be a mightiest hero humanity had ever seen, albeit with a pointy helmet and flared armour boots ;-)

And so it was , I grew up I abandoned fantasy games, and embraced reality, I joined a Viking Re-enactment group to get my fix of swords and armour,which led on to learning about real history, and real mythology ( oxymoron I know ) I found that our history is just as fascinating as any fantasy myth, and so on the journey went, Norse, Greek, Egyptian, Mayan, Japanese, Chinese .. No myth was left untouched. Superman became Nietzsche's The Übermensch . Conrad who became 2000ad's Slaine now became CúChulainn .

All this research and knowledge of course made me feel empowered, but it also came at price.

Fantasy no longer held the fascination it once did, where is the fun in knowing the real names and myths that fantasies are based upon, it ruins the suspension of disbelief, in this case I do believe ignorance is bliss. The real world is far more enriched but the beloved fantasy world of my youth not so much ..

The bard

So what to do,.. what to do .. It is possible to create my own myth ( that would seem the logical next step ), one that I can identify with, that will also spur on real world research and knowledge whilst providing a fun and an engaging fantasy hobby, something that I can learn from in all the senses. By becoming a better painter modeller and writer. A myth I can use to game in and for other folks to game in … I think I can .. but I think I still want want to game within The joint myths of the old world, gaming and writing within an existing joint fantasy is far more fun than gaming by yourself. And even though I feel much of the old world has had its story already written .. there are still places off the beaten track , misty time forgotten lands where an intrepid adventurous Hoary Empire Soul can become a legend within his own lifetime..and make a few coins on the side. Well at least until the chaos hoards overrun us all.

Albion here I come...

Links

Check out the warlock pdf's below particularly issue 10 page 19/20

and the Original D&D rules below

http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Old_World

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_Battle

http://www.gitzmansgallery.com/Warhammer_Maps/index.html

http://www.georgerrmartin.com/musings-writing-fantasy.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gary_Gygax

http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Death_%28book%29

http://lonewolf.wikia.com/wiki/Magnamund

http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Titan_%28world%29

http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Marc_Gascoigne

http://www.fightingfantasy.org.uk/BookofAtlan/OW-INDEX.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warhammer_Fantasy_Battle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons

Original D&D Rulebooks

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_E._Howard

http://www.gamebooks.org/cgi-bin/search.cgi?Type=Author&Text=Joe+Dever&Header=Books+by+Joe+Dever

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_%28gamebooks%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conan_the_Barbarian

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Arneson

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Way_of_the_Tiger

http://mrparsons.webspace.virginmedia.com/html/duel_master_by_mark_smith___ja.html

http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Talisman_of_Death_%28book%29

http://fightingfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Out_of_the_Pit

Warlock magazine links

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_13.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_12.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_11.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_10.pdf

http://users.atw.hu/twillight/Warlock_09.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_08.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_07.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_06.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_05.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_04.pdf

http://www.annarchive.com/files2/Warlock_03.pdf

http://users.atw.hu/twillight/Warlock_01.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warlock_%28magazine%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeons_%26_Dragons_campaign_settings

And for those wondering what happened if you turned to page .....

page 60

Page 5

Page 70

Page 75

Page 100

Page 125

Page 247

Page 185

Page 114

To sum up I leave you with these eloquent words i found during my travels...

"On Fantasy"

by George R. R. Martin

     The best fantasy is written in the language of dreams. It is alive as dreams are alive, more real than real ... for a moment at least ... that long magic moment before we wake.

     Fantasy is silver and scarlet, indigo and azure, obsidian veined with gold and lapis lazuli. Reality is plywood and plastic, done up in mud brown and olive drab. Fantasy tastes of habaneros and honey, cinnamon and cloves, rare red meat and wines as sweet as summer. Reality is beans and tofu, and ashes at the end. Reality is the strip malls of Burbank, the smokestacks of Cleveland, a parking garage in Newark. Fantasy is the towers of Minas Tirith, the ancient stones of Gormenghast, the halls of Camelot. Fantasy flies on the wings of Icarus, reality on Southwest Airlines. Why do our dreams become so much smaller when they finally come true?

     We read fantasy to find the colors again, I think. To taste strong spices and hear the songs the sirens sang. There is something old and true in fantasy that speaks to something deep within us, to the child who dreamt that one day he would hunt the forests of the night, and feast beneath the hollow hills, and find a love to last forever somewhere south of Oz and north of Shangri-La.

     They can keep their heaven. When I die, I'd sooner go to middle Earth.

Requiem Act : -][- -][-

As the fighting intensified, the dauntless inquisitors split into three distinct groups , Cordatus ,Vendrake, Benadice , Cassar, Guidonis, Adorno and the Meretrix Auphid fought through the tightly packed eastern corridors on the right flank. Whilst Helsmarck , Tybalt, and Balthier .Skirmished through the spartan central the corridors , leaving Velk , Bell and Wroth to contest the discommodious western maintenance corridors on the left flank.

East Corridor

The battle grew blood fierce.. Las and bolt shot replaced by the slash and stab of fixed bayonet and power sword. The right flank had slowed to a crawl. The sheer numbers of guardsmen that had flocked to protect the sarcophagus (as directed by Guidonis and Vendrake) had hobbled and constricted its advance. The haughty, yet dour visage of Inquisitor Cassar expressed little emotion as he elegantly strode, sabre in hand towards the seething ranks of chaos, ahead of the sarcophagus and a throng of bristling flak roughnecks. Agent Auphid bound impatient forward, cutting a tempestuous swathe through the cultist. Eager to impress Guidonis, the young Inquisitor Cordatus saw his chance. Ducking out of the constricted north-east corridor and sprinting hard to the brig. Skewering a renegade guardsman and freeing his naval provost captives in one fell swoop. Not to be outdone Executrix Benadice and the Malleusificant Adorno jostled through the fractious fraternity. Inspiring and terrorising in equal measure, to join the Meretrix on the front-line.

Adorno Intercepts a drove of recreant dissenters

Cordatus frees the Naval Provosts and leads the south east charge

Central Corridors

Inquisitor Alaric Balthier had forged headway into the dimly lit central passage, His sword ran a crimson viscous artery through a bevy of wailing rancorous scum, Ogryn and man alike fell to plasma and plasteel. The Veteran Hoth, unable to keep speed with the more agile Inquisitor, seconded a group of standing cadets, forking west through an open door and overwhelming its heterodox occupants. Tybalt had dealt with the first wave of cultists with some ease, His mighty malleus hammer denting, then demolishing foe by foe. He now swept forward towards Hoth and Alaric, followed closely by a circumspect Helsmarck, who had accrued a sizeable retinue of conscripts.

Helsmarck precedes Tybalt into the central west xxii generatum

Villem Hoth Breaks the right flank into the central corridor

Alaric Balthier cuts down his foe next to generatum xxi

West Maintenance Corridors

The fighting had began in earnest, A quintet of fervent grim faced men, formed a formidable human shield around the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor. Bell battling brute after brute. Bodies of the fallen, imperial and Chaos alike, now slumped into a hematic pile. The guardsman whittled like wood, until Bell stood all but alone. Corralled into a corner, facing a triptych mammoth of miscreation. His wingman the skilled swordsman Maccabeus Wroth dexterous and facile, fought the oncoming obdurate hoard with tenacity. Unlike the evanescent errant Velk who eluded the combat entirely, when he shrouded from the throng into the adumbral west cargo bay passage.

Inquisitor Bell is pommelled

The onslaught reaches critical mass within cramped bulkheads

of the the central and west flank splintered asunder by the implacable hoard

Maccabeus Wroth gives all for his fellow Inquisitors. His heroic death a seething contortion

of ferment ruination. A wonder of resonant blade and reaping telekenesis. The diversion buying the coadjute ordos precious time to hasten Madine uncontested towards the Cargo bay.

Velk emerges unseen from the western cargo access tunnel. Using the death of Inquistor Wroth as a distraction. He cannily appropriates the the waiting Arvus Lighter and decamps the Sealed Fate

Leaving His fellow Inquisitors and subordinate crewmen with no certain means of escape.

Wroth lay dead. Velk's shuttle departed.But still a hoard of cultists stood between the Inquisitors and supposed freedom. The Death of Wroth had bought them time to breath. A moment of quietus repose. But as they drew the arid recycled air into their lungs the silence was broken...

The dissident sea ahead them, rippled with commotion. the ground underfoot rumbled tumult

trepidation. The inquisitor Bathier steeled himself. And there he was... a behemoth of a man ..no not man .. this had long since given up any claim of humanity.. The blackest of black..An Astartes who had embraced the lure of the warp.

Balthier did not falter.. a battle cry emitted his lips uncontested ..his sword in hand he powered towards the ceremite colossal. For the Emperor !

Guidonis Commands all Inquisitors to assail the apostate Astartes.

As more Cultists burst forth from the cargo lift , Madine is Manoeuvred behind the Chaos marine

towards a back entrance of the cargo bay.

Cordatus is held back to protect the sarcophagus. Much to his vexation

While Balthier, Hoth, Benadice, Tybalt, The Meretrix and Cassar deal with the Astartes Bell and Hellsmarck barrage through the remaining cultists with a victorious final push to secure the cargo bay.

Adorno and Cordatus form a perimeter around Madines body,

whilst Vendrake and Guidonis Radio for a dropship.

Unbeknownst to Inquisitor Velk's Chicanery.

With The Astartes slain , the Arvus Ligher Docks at the stratum 144 Axiom cargo bay

The remaining Inquisitors board along with Madine's Body.

Minutes later Admiral Faust's Cruiser, the Sealed Fate erupts into flames.

A catalyst

Autarchical and often fractious, Ordos of the Dalthan Conclave are not well known for their harmonious assemblage. It requires a great deal of charisma and power to influence so many respected Inquisitor/Inqusistrix to pay fealty at the requiem of the former Helios Cabal leader, Madine. Not many within the Dhaltan sub hold such command.

Inquisitor Guidonis is one such individual. A long and glittering career behind him, Guidonis now officially retired to the chapel planetoid Ecclissia where he writes his Magnum Opus , Practica Inquisitionis Haereticae.

The Bythonian Synod asked Guidonis to witness the Succession, acting to serve the Ecclesiarchy's interests insofar as possible. After Madines death , the synod arranged a reliquary shrine in the halls of Brythonis . The devout Guidonis making all necessary arrangements for transportation.

Whilst many Inquisitors despised Madine personally, and many more apathetic towards her political aims ( Including Guidonis ). Refusing a personal invite from the revered Inquisitor, to the requiem was tantamount to Heresy . As such it came as little surprise that so many representatives from the Ordo's diligently arrived on board Admirals Faust's Cruiser before it departed from Dhaltus Prime.

Admiral Faust is a stringent man .. a man who knows procedure .. a survivor of countless Naval confrontations ..His tactical nounce is as ingrained as a servitors binary code. On occasion and when necessary, it is said of his Captain's that he can interpret a lingua technis combat analysis Vox, quicker than a techpriest.

Which would explain how he ordered his ship “Abaft the beam “ whilst still in the immaterium , seconds before pair of boarding torpedoes hit his flank .

A Single ship wide vox communicae rattled out of a thousands identical of plasteel lattice orbs .

“Make ready to receive boarding actions gentlemen , we are dropping out of warp, have your Lieutenants do their jobs well and we may survive.”

Klaxon's wailed cacophonous as Captains yelled orders down vox tubes to the lower decks. Lieutenants yelled orders at their ensigns and eighty thousand indentured souls moved as one..Respect for the Admiral In their minds , fear of the buffers cat o nine on the flesh and devotion to the God Emperor the lubrication in the heart.

The first salvo of explosions rocked the cruiser leeward on its gyro stabilisers .

“ Damage report watch Captain , if you please!”

We have lost the geller field Admiral , all port side macro canons are disabled .

Void shields down.. warp engines down..plasma drive intact , starboard macro lance batteries intact, Nova cannon intact.. torpedo tubes intact. Aft launch bays intact.

Power loss on decks 39 to 123..

The battle deck bristled with static energy as rasping orders rang out.

Bring her about and ready the lance batteries , launch all starhawk fighters, and someone contact Inquisitor Guidonis ,

You could call it a sixth sense if you were of a superstitious nature .. Faust called it too long in the warp.. sometimes the crew just knew something bad was going to happen, you didn’t have to be an astropath to sense these things ..

A small flotilla of chaos frigates and reavers sporting the heretical "Word bearer" iconography, had happened upon the ageing Dictator class Cruiser. Even with its frigate outriders the Admiral was outmatched , and he knew it. Tactics could take you far and faith further , but not today . This battle was lost before it started .. His only recourse was to fight through or pull back.

“Praise the Emperor , we fight on”

STRATUM deck 144

Imperial guard barracks “Axiom”

The battle had raged for hours, emergency red light filled the stratum with a disconcerting glow .

The barrack had lost power several times as localised plasma cores imploded under fluctuating energy surges .

The aptly named cruiser was on it's last legs. A final push by the Admiral had seen the ancient ships armoured prow plunge through its enemies, scattering its foes like leaves in the wind. But the price was too high . A barrage of superheated lances had rupture the coolant tubes that fed its venerable plasma core, several decks and most aft launch bays had been instantly snap frozen. A winter ice palace reflecting a contrary myriad of boiling plasma and lance ordinance.

Faust had suggested Guidonis inter Madine in one of the barrack reliquary's, for the transit to Loidis. The barracks could easily cater for any needs the Inquisitors may have . With its own array of flight decks transporting Madine on and off ship wouldn’t be a problem ..Which in hindsight proved a welcome move. But also kept them together and off of the Admirals command deck. The last thing he wanted was a dozen or so inquisitors wandering around his ship with time on their hands.

When the repel Boarders on stratum 144 order came through the Inquisitors took direct command of the barracks. Skilfully coordinating the troops to defend key locations ,until Guidonis ordered all to return to Madines sarcophagus .

“ Our priority is to transfer Madines body to Brythonis , we must move now to secure a ship before its too late”

The assembled Inquisitors along with their commandeered troops , began the desperate battle to push through the tight renegade filled corridors to he nearest vacant cargo hold.

Guidonis greets The inquisitors of Dalthus

Madines antigravitic suspensor sarcophagus is moved slowly towards the docking bay

under the watchful eye of Guidonis

Vendrake Commandeers Troops and joins Guidonis behind Madine

Renegade troops pour into the ship

Velk slips away unseen into the shadows

Cassar Valiantly leads troops into the enemies midst

Benadice rallies the shaken crew

Cordatus leaps into battle slaying cultist after cultist whilst heading towards the captured navy provost's

After a desperate battle the Inquisitors had pushed into the centre of the ship..half way towards the docking bay, when a second wave of cultists burst forth blocking their exit. The ship crumbling around them they were running out of time .

the Events and immediate aftermath of the Helios Succession have weighed heavy on Vendrakes mind

The wily old inquisitor had forsaken much to attend the Conclave meeting . Planet Praxus was in turmoil..a rebellion amongst the Vulgus could erupt at any moment. The weak and failing Imperial governor Xavious Adalaise is at deaths door. Now was not the time to go gallivanting around the Dalthus sector whilst Phalanx System ( known colloquially as Hydra ) was so unstable. But his commitments to the Ordo came first.. Stability would be ensured if he could guaranteed the election of Inquisitrix Madine.. The trickle of information from his sources in the Border worlds had grown to flood.. the xenos were coming , he was sure of it . The bitter taint of a wicked Elder invasion could not be allowed to tarnish his illustrious career as the self appointed guardian from without. No , the stability of Dalthus depends on this election. Emperor forbid a radical should take the seat.. or worse..The recent ramifications from the deposition of Governor Daven Kel-Rosber of Cydonia had already upset the noble families of Phalanx Hive .. another slack tithe collection at this point could be disastrous for the defence of the Phalanx system, maybe even the whole Phrellian Sub He had the fiery and fearsome Herecticus Inquisitrix Callydia Benadice to thank for that situation.. ..Her reputation for intolerance of the weak had been justified. As subtle as a boltgun, her Meddling in Phalanx Noble politics bothersome but not unjustified .. she could wait.

As it happened the events of the succession came to him before he had chance to leave the Phrellian Sub for Dahltus Prime . In all planetary systems there those planets that don't do much.. Borrus is one such planet.A huge spinning ball of gas, that sits on the Horizon of Praxus along with its twin moon Chrons and looks pretty. The techpriests from the Mutaran Demesne Had tried collecting its plasma as fuel. But the Difficult navigation from Mutara had proved uneconomical . Many on Phalanx Hive had supposed on that if this Planet could be harvested the Insular system of Phalanx could become wealthy trade route stop bypassing Arzgin and Suppressio systems on route to Loidis

But until the Merchants and guilders of Cydonia and Phalanx Hive are willing to unite and fund the cost of such a grand project, Phalanx will remain a backwater system.

It was during a routine trip to the Phalanx system capital Phalanx Hive to see the Governor

Baron Dysarno regarding Imperial tithes , That Inquisitor Vendrake intersected a High level Vox communication on an Inquisitorial Frequency . A Rogue Electro priest was attempting to set up a lucrative cargo transaction , from a former plasma research station Orbiting Chrons Moon.

Vendrake sped to location to interject a counter proposal.. Now was a good time to collect resources and potential contacts ..Electing an outspoken Amalathian would be no easy task with so many radicals within Dhaltus.

Unfortunately Vendrake failed to convince the the Rogue Electro priest to deal with him. The pre standing arrangement he had with the Impressive Ordo Malleus Inquisitor Tybalt was unbreakable..

Vendrake cut his losses with the cargo , but the diversion was not a lost cause after all. During the negotiations with the electro priest . Vendrakes tormented astrotelepath Souel , managed to mind scan one of Tybalt's acolytes , revealing a pertinent piece of information , concerning the whereabouts of The Ordo Hereticus Inquisitrix Benadice .

It appeared The race to make strong and viable contacts to influence the conclave had begun.

Benadice had acquired a rotund Administatum scribe of particular import .form the suppressio Mining colony in the outer reaches of the Phrellian sub. Vendrake took the opportunity to exact some revenge on the Flame haired Inquisitrix For her interference within the Cydonian Noble politics .. a finely wrought thing that needs careful and restrained coercion to be of maximum effect.

Vendrake had no real desire to kidnap the scribe ..only to let Benadice know.. that there would be consequences for interfering within his domain.

Which is exactly what he did when he ambushed her on route to her drop ship scaring the scribe half to death .and forcing her to flee .. of course I am sure she would tell it differently...

Either way Vendrake played his role with minor success.

Phased by the recent events Vendrake..realised he would need much more direct firepower to take on the more radical elements of the conclave . His deep association with the secular Adaptus mechanicus cult on Praxus is well known to many Conclave members , in particular to Inquisitors of his own Ordo Xenos . So it came as little surprise when he himself was ambushed by a fellow Ordo xenos Inquisitor Titus bell and company whilst trying to recruit the powerful Magos Mendacles in the Praxian wilds .

Whisking away his valued prize, Vendrake made for Dhaltus Prime and the Conclave , where the real political power lay.

The campaigning began in earnest ..Vendrakes Years of influencing Noble policy paying dividends when he successfully persuaded enough voters to elect Inquisitrix Madine after a thirty two vote tie with Vendrakes former adversary from the Chrons moon facility a few months earlier ..Inquisitor Tybalt. Truly a powerful and influential figure to watch out for ..he noted.

Vendrakes Victory over the conclave was short lived however..

As Madine Stood to make her acceptance speech , a single shot rang out ...Her life taken and all Vendrakes work undone in an instance.

Even before her body was cold the blame game began.. fingers began pointing towards the more radical leaning inquisitors..The conclave in turmoil once again.. leaderless and vulnerable to attack from without and within..

Vendrake was more upset at the death of Madine than he had first realised . Not only did it undo well made plans ..and force him to keep his eyes of Praxus for even longer. But more than that ,he liked Madine personally , Yes she was naive in her appreciation of the complex issues of Dalthus ( for which she paid the ultimate price ) but she was also brave ..fearless to her opposition ..a pure heart and even head that is rarely scene within the Inquisitorial Conclave , even though she was a Herecticus she kept one eye on the big picture .. Vendrake respected that. She knew if the Conclave fell into radical hands ..Dhaltus was doomed ..The security the two of them could have brought to the system riddled with corruption filled him with hope... he the gaurdian of the enemy without she within..Now lost ...

Vendrake did not get angry , that was a young mans burden , he attempted to see a ll the angles.. but his usual clarity had left him.. just confusion and the pain of his leg..clouded his thoughts.. Chiron

made the usual cocktail of drugs to ease his masters anguish.. and Vendrake thanked his luck for finding such an accomplished apothecary amongst Stimm fuelled Slaught junkies of General Martoks Men . It was in these drug induced days that he was contacted by Darthur . Madine's faithful interrogator acolyte.. the poor man had taken his own eyes with grief and shame at failing to protect his Mistress . Vendrake took pity on the wretched soul and brought him into his own flock.( an act Socrates was keen to undermine ) To console the young man , Vnedrake applied his formidable powers of persuasion " Find the killer and your shame shall be lifted , Avenge your Former Mistress and restore your honour .. Do this for yourself and for Dhaltus and I will grant your Inquisitorial status . Vendrakes began plotting how he could use the death of Madine to his political advantage . The Finger pointing had rested upon a Lone rogue Inquisitor... Velk A memebr of the dame Herecticus Ordo as Madine , but that is where the similarity ends.. a sinister Figure shrouded in mistery and duplicity.. linked with contemptible Elder..and who's motives are unclear

Fatigued from Drug use the ageing Vendrake failed to move swiftly enough to capture Velk.. who left a trail of bloodshed in his wake ..nearly killing fellow Ordo Hereticus Inquisitor Theodore Helsmarck

The Requiem

Vendrake's close ties with Admiral Faust where put to good use , when The Venerable Inquisitor Guidonis of Brythonis arranged For Madines Requiem to be held within the hallowed halls of the Ecclissia. Faust has Personally overseen the transportation of Madine through Dalthus to sub sector Loidis space .

Aye up Folks ..This post was originally going to be about terrain or "environment art" as I was going to pretentiously dub it. It was going to show the transition of the gaming table over the years, and as an unsung champion of the hobby .. but during my research through back issues of the Dwarf I came across several articles that made me realise that White Dwarf is another unsung hero of the hobby..that deserved its place in my personal blogosphere.

Now as some of you might know I call myself Neil101 in the community .. the 101 name apart from sounding cool ;-) and being coincidently the room from the Orwellian book 1984 ..and the actual year I started my life long affair with science fiction and fantasy , ( the first fighting fantasy book I picked up was the Shamutanti Hills by Steve Jackson from the fantastic sorcery series .. yep apart from those coincidences ..I chose this name because its the first issue of white Dwarf I actually bought. In may of the year of our lord 1988.. at this point I was living In a caravan On the North east coast of England.. a pretty horrible year for the twelve year old me , except for my introduction into the science fantasy world of 40k and WFB. At the the time I was pretty skint .. ( not much as changed ) and even though Games workshop already had a nationwide presence .. I had never ventured into a store..

My sole experience of games workshop came at me through this magazine .. I could barely afford it from my pocket money at the time , and it was nearly always a toss up between a fighting fantasy book a day at the arcades or White Dwarf.. at the time my nearest GW was a fair trek away and I didn't have the money or gaming circle to buy actual games or blister packed miniatures .. But then again I didn't need it. The magazine held everything I wanted from the hobby.. great stories, lovely artwork and a shed load of interesting articles . I would say it was this magazine more than any other aspect of the hobby the hooked me. The wonderful vertical dioramas the great sense of camaraderie and creating something new .. It felt like it was at the forefront of something special .. the way it held aloft the flame for geeks everywhere and said ..look at us we have talent .. One of my fondest memories of this time , was looking at the artwork and trying to make out who the artist was from their initials.. so many talented artists showcased their work under the ip banner of games workshop it was glorious to see.. It looked like a fun place to work. and i loved the window it created for us to see through.. I can honestly say that the time felt like a golden age .. But being the cynic I am that could just be rose tinted glasses from my youth.

As I said earlier .. I stumbled across an article from the ten year anniversary of white dwarf back in 1987 ..that i thought was relevant ..

So whilst travelling on the train down to Nottingham for the Yggdrassilliumme event .. I read the latest copy of White Dwarf.. I had picked it up In eagerness .. because of the new format. It was the first WD I had looked forward to buying in long time.. ( apart form the one with PDH's fat bloke in ;-) I missed out on the birth of WD I was too young to see the transition from The owl & Weasel D&D fanzine to Glossy WD no1 in 1977 , I born in 76 ;-)

But the internet has some uses and looking back over the years I can see there has been a few major design changes.. ( I recall talking talking to an old hippy Viking back in youth . when I started selling off the few copies of wd I had collected to buy trendy stuff no doubt. He told me that WD was not what it used to be .. it was all adverts and gloss now.. just a vehicle for GW's products not the in-depth role-players real ale magazine it used to be .. or words to that effect.. as a youth I just nodded along and accepted his truth .. after all what did I know about WD back in the seventies .. or the American D&D for that matter , I hated dragon magazine ..the covers always felt too nubile and glossy and unreal for me.. I grew up with Titan , Orb , magnamund .. and Warhammer Olde world.. I knew bloodbowl and thrud and space marines .. and I loved White dwarf.

I see now as an adult what he was talking about .. Change in essence. The format of the magazine over the years, certainly has changed I noticed the first major change was back in issue 39, when the front cover got re jigged and In Ian Livinstones words "introduced non justified text matter , for easier reading .. I am sure this is one of the things the Viking missed .. as it would have been part of his fond role-playing memories .. along with multitude of scenarios.

I Mention this because for the longest time I have held no love for the little White Dwarf.. I don't judge others who enjoy the magazine though , as I remember how disappointed I felt when the Viking rubbished my collection. But for me I now stand in the Vikings boots .. maybe this is just the way it is.

You grow out of something and have rose tinted glasses for the past . I am not sure, all I know is when I have purchased the magazine from over eager salesmen on and off over the past decade or so I have just not been inspired .. something felt missing .. originality, content etc.. it could be the fact that magazine is so serious or that every issue felt samey new product battle report and so on.. So it was with great trepidation Handed over my cash for the newest instalment.

I was pleasantly surprised at the format , and welcomed many changes .. the addition of large profile photos of staff goes a long way in making you feel included into that cloistered world.. The addition of the Blanchitsu goes a long way in satiating my arty desire.. and i got that sense of camaraderie again amongst the staff. I nearly believed they were having real fun !

Especially looking at the Jes Goodwin sketches and the design philosophy of the chaos marines .. and I even enjoyed Jervis Johnson's article , which is a surprise because I always feel like I have been sold something I didn't want , After reading his thoughts. I will never be intrigued by battle reports as I have so little understanding of the rules that it just goes over my head. All in all I enjoyed the magazine a lot more than the previous incarnation.. The quality of the paper and its size felt like good value for money. I still feel like its on a uphill struggle to convince us old time hobbyists of its new-found credentials though.. Personally to justify me handing over my money on a monthly basis , I would prefer a lot more hobby content , illuminations.. stories etc... I want to be pulled into the world like I am with the books and rulebooks.. and not feel like I am being talked to like a child , In fact when I was a child the magazine talked to me like I was an adult , now I am an adult I feel talked to like a child. a bit more honesty a smidgen of humour and a lot less hard sell ... Now I sound like that Viking don't I ?

The yggdrassillium bound the illium , to the Arkke in the darkly dark ,

rooticle slavers.. cable graders , creepsy crawling in the ink.

Aether watcher , three eyed nobles , caste corrupted corpse to rot,

Spire above the worthless cretins, maske my beauteous emperors soul.

Brawling , mauling , meaty , miner, eyeing spied the archeotek.

Sunken sumpcrust pitslaves digger ..wanders itinerant without rest.

Follow me my fellow frigates , full of faith yet black of heart ..tis the journey of no end.

Steersman , guide the lost to our salvation , toll the bell when all is done.

Come whence thee haggety hag into the ship now we must gun.. I have a vision of our future,

wyrdly weird with blood red tree , fruiting skulls and thick black cables .

The bandaged prophet holds the answer to my question.. I have three..!

Ruptured spleen and torn asunder,

eyes a gouge and heart a stop ,

The Auger scraped her index finger through the innards of its gizzard .

Stymphalian birds can show the way, sinister left and the pandoricalle is right..

End is nigh when five collide .. prophetic blood that drips with truth,

Close the gates and shun the pilgrims, guild the vates we need protection . I spy trouble this way

comes..

Hey folks I finished the Yggrassilium board well tbh I see it as a work in progress , this is a good start though. lots to chat about regarding that , but first I would like to mention that this board wouldn't exist if it were not for the inspiration that came from the bruticus necromunda blog on dakka .. also finished the Illium family cult, which is good because i had to game with them on Saturday at Warhammer world ;-)

Five amazing gangs came together to play over the Yggdrasillium board and really brought it to life..

I don't really know where to start a blog about the day .. which was rather special.. but when in doubt start at the beginning...

about three months back PDH the inimitable John Blanche and Myself Rise of the magi and Fulgrim

arranged a game of necromunda .. not just any game mind you a game set within the foetid imaginings of the dark scribe Blanche .. a potential new painting of his . An Arkke ships adrift in the warp..besieged gellerfields crumbling under the strain of chaos.. its inhabitants a collection of ragtag souls from a multitude of different races and lost ships brought together by the will of the gods.. a grimdark necromunda where anything goes .. akin to the warhammer olde world.. where we could set our imagination free from existing ideas rules and doctrines .. a hobbyist dream .. make what you will

and lets have some fun...

with our imaginations set free .. we burst into a frenzy of work...stories were wrote ..myths brought together to form new myths ..ideas were bounced back and fourth .. dreams became a reality and then. dissolved back into myth..

PDH's encyclopaedic knowledge of 40k rulesytems thankfully held everything in check and made sure we didn't fall of the edge of reality into the chaotic abyss

Bilgepumps spouted sump ice into the void whilst cheese rearing maggot farmers vowed revenge on slavers ..

The darkly dark scribe set about his task .. a fluid thing .. building a gang to Peters recommended 1400pts system inspired by the work of Migsula and the Jade vessel.

The Ghost Ship

Hark thee laddy and listen well .. I have story to be told …

The old baggywrinkle. Adjusted his retaining straps and blew a thick smog from his bar pipe..

come closer boy..

I saw her from the port side docks.. a young man then with both legs, The captain had ordered the caulkers after a broadside battering.. the dockers were hard at it sparks flying as the plasteel was welded into place . I had grabbed my void suit and was magboot ready for the hull..pistons hissed as the heavy door revolved .. ancient arc welder over my padded shoulder.. my relic visor fogged like see fret..

the bulkhead hissed close...and I was alone .. The black of it dawns on you like fear.. alone not a star .. just the shimmering flicker of the gellar field ..

I don’t know why I liked it out here so much .. The ships commissar had expunged my thoughts many times ..as with all void side Aether Caulkers .. and if it wasn’t the buffers job to make us suffer enough, then the Priests would have us hold vigil afterwards..

and the dangers .. the soul may be protected by the emperor but my arse is owned by this suit!

One rupture and its ...Se la vie !

The gloved hand could scratch the glass if you rubbed too hard .. but the ice crystals had formed already..

I dusted them off gently , and there she was.. a fleeting glimpse.. awash in the eddies and currents

or the Empyrean .. gently banking away into the ink.. grapple hooks as large as freighters bobbing behind..

Silent …

Huge...

I had see things out here before , things you don’t mention to the priests or even to your workmates.. so long as the umbilical is there I know I am not lost... but this...

a myriad of lights pinpricks .. countless ships fused into a grotesque monument to the dark powers

asteroids bled into ancient hulks..that clashed with things unknown..

cascades of ice particles formed a shimmering wake . The effluence of a thousand external bilge pumps..

The voice of billion souls form a myriad races echoed as one.

Heart pounding mouth dry ..shock..awe.. wonder..

The stories inspired our work and the darkly dark souls of our mirrormaske came intro being

Peters Gang evolved into a dark and sinister fallen crew... his stories the glue we needed to keep on..

Rise of the Magi chose , a nautical theme.. his steersman guiding the true path through the bilge bottom..

Fulgrim's Navigators corrupted wretched souls bound by vanity and knowledge descended down from the spire into the ink black depths .

My own family cult the illium , murderous sociopaths entwindled betwitxt the roots of the Yggdrassil tree.. living of feeding tubes and rusty airvents in the decks below there master the Pandoricalle .

Even the mighty Blanche feels the pull.. His sunken sumpcrust pitslaves .. digging for lost tek fell fowl of an Arkke quake a, metaphysical thing where reality collides with unreality and time shifts upwards and backwards and inwards at once.

the pandoricalle is the keeper of secrets within the Arkke

and all who risk the pilgrimage will be rewarded with foresight. but be warned know thyself.

Much more to say about this stuff but i have to go and do my chores ;-) had a great day with great friends , saw some stunning minis and pictures .. ize colts stuff up close and personal and the amazing Julian Baylis Escher gangers, alongside some other stuff i was rather proud of ;-)

thanks for looking

The Inquivitational was a great event.. and i have being meaning to update with some more pics.. to get back into the spirit .. and as a teaser for Molotov's upcoming second inqquivitational event on November the third . I thought i would post up some art i did to represent The planet Ecclessia which resides within the Brythonis sector of the Loidis sub and its chapel planetoid Chiaroscuro / Chirasocurrii Home of the legendary thorny Inquisitor Guidonis . who resides in the chapaloid writing his magnum opus the Practica Inquisitionis Heretice Pravitatis

Ecclessia is home to several cults of the solar deity .. and this inspired the chiroscuro feel of the plantet..

Brythonis is a Orthodox ecclesiastical sector and Ecclessia Quite dour and solemn . the planet bathed in perpetual darkness, The Orbit of Ecclessia taking it on an a long elliptical journey into the cold dark of Loidis space , reaching its black winter azimuth. Many years without light gradually punctuated by the returning warmth and lighter days.. until unbearable brightness and heat scorches the equator as it reaches it solar equinox..praise the light praise the emperor ..

After the death of Inquisitrix Madine at the end of the Helios Succession, the noted Inquisitor Guidonis arranged for her body to be conveyed aboard an Imperial Navy vessel to the cathedral-world of Ecclisia, where she will be laid to rest in its vaunted chapel-halls.

Presently a large Naval Vessel is transporting The late Inqusitrix Madines Body to Brythonis for Internment.. Inquisitor Vendrake , along with Madines former acolyte Interrogator Darthur have arranged to oversee the funeriumme / Requiem

hey folks just a few pics of the scenery in its current state.. ... struggling with the overall layout now as its changed in purpose a few times and my designs haven't really reflected this ..will need some height and walkways which in turn leads to other problems with the zone mortalis set ..not having a roof section..mm still trying to figure out placements of the pandoricalle and the tree and weather they should be seperate of together.. lots of ideas just no strong leader ..

still enjoying painting the board though..

wips.. the skulls will form part of a votive souvenir candle gift

Hey folks.. i have been consumed with research into ship breaking yards and trains both model and real especially handcars. i have collected quite a few images and thought i would share some of the better ones .

Ship breaking.

Whilst at uni a few years ago i came across the work of Edward burtysnksy and his photographs and film Manufactured Landscapes I rediscovered his work on the tracing lines blog

I also found some other great links for this

http://www.flickriver.com/groups/shipbreaking/pool/interesting/

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2008/05/shipwrecks-sea-disasters.html#

http://www.travelyourassoff.com/2012/01/abandon-ship-chittagong-ship-breaking.html

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adamcohn/5062026444/in/photostream/

http://jirirezac.photoshelter.com/gallery-show/G0000v_zF2X_SdN4

of all these inspirational pics .. this is my fave.. winner of the national geographic photography awards

Trains

So if the ship breaking images were supposed to inspire my rusty floored gameboard and add civilian desperate life struggle feeling .. then trains were there because well who doesn't like trains .

Handcars velocipedes draisines (o gauge s gauge) (Its a mine field out there regarding scale and gaming )

inspired by Stalker i spend a few weeks researching handcars and pump wagons.. i wanted a trainline on the board and cart to go on it.. Peco do a range of tracks in a scale suitable for 28mm gaming .. 30/32mm wide " o " gauge track equates to 1/48scale.. i think.. lots of cool tracks and webssites out there dedicated to this scale .. but I decided to cut costs and kitbash old sprue. and use a bulkehead i was kindly given by Rise of the magi along and with a dozer blade from Bruticus to creat my handcar..

One thing i did notice was the amazing work finescale model rail folk do .. and the huge scale of the tracks and scenery the American modellers create . I hoped to tray and capture some of that realism these modellers bring into their hobby ..similar to the traditional army and navy model work .

Aye folks just thought I would share some progress on some terrain I am making for a game skirmish game set aboard " a ginormous craft , riding the warp storms of the Empyriumme ." ( Using Necromunda rules )

Yggdrassilliumm

The network of sentient ? living organic cable tree roots that bind this section of the ship.. entwindle its residents into a symbiotic reliance on its life sustaining air ,light and water cables .

Yggdrassill Tree

One of many focal points of this vast cable tree network .. an interface betwixt ship and organics..

worshipped as a god votive offerings are brought forth .. Once alive ..organic nutrients are still needed for the tree to continue living. cared for by the monastic Pandoricalle clan with Help from the Illium family cult.

Pandoricalle

Yggdrassill Prophetic Psyker and spiritual head of the pandoricalle clan.. Connected to the Yggdrasillium network .. through the Yggdrassill Cable tree.. The Pandoricalle is one of the most influential people on the ship ! all Information gathered by the Yggdrasillium is accessible to the prophet through a cognitive synapse psychic link.. The prophet interprets the will of Yggdrasill to his clan ..

whilst being the focal point of many votive pilgrimages .. through out the ship .. the Pandoricalle gives personalised predictions and wise counsel to anyone who can afford the consultation , and survives the treacherous Pilgrimage.

Pandorcialle clan

The monastic clan's primary task is to care for the Yggdrasill cable tree.. and manage the reception of the many pilgrims who undertake the dangerous journey to see the famed pandoricalle.

to this end the Pandorcialle have recruited several allies .. the " Guilder clan Vates, " who provide food, fuel and protection in return for trade with the pilgrims ..

The darkly dark slavers the " Illium " who provide sacrificial Victims for the the Pandoricalle clan's feared pandora boxes.. that feed the cable tree Yggdrassil

The Illium

This murderous family cult.. lives deep in the tangled cable roots of yggdrasillium .. no air water or light reaches these dark and mutated depths .. And the illium have become adept at appeasing Yggdrassil , "patching ancient cables here and inserting tubes there "in return for its life bringing recycled air and water ..

The Ilium are the family of nightmares.. born in the dark .. vile and mutated.. they abhor outsiders and take any opportunity to kill or kidnap innocent trespassers. .. The youths are thrown out puberty to fend for themselves and bring back information on new cable routes..

Insular and paranoid They worship the cable roots and the cable tree itself.. and have formed an uneasy alliance with the pandoricalle clan.. to provide sacrificial victims to the dreaded pandora boxes..

Mutation is rife within the family .. due to the taint of chaos inbreeding and pollution..

Hey folks Just wanted to share with you these great artists I discovered while researching grain silos...

after being inspired by this camera shot from Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker.

There is a good description of there work here on the inspirational Poul Webb Art Blog

and here at the tracing lines project blog

hey folks just letting any one who is interested know I have listed the Tor Gillead terrain on ebay ..

I had to list it as collection only though because of its size.. far too big for me to bothered to wrap well. and the p&p would be huge as its quite heavy.. shame though i did want to keep it .. really put a lot of effort into making it and it cost more than than I am selling for .. but need the space asap

Tor Gillead for sale .

Hey folks I did have another post planned but.. I have been missing working on Praxus for some time now .. so to re-energise myself for it I put together these images .. For those that don't know the noble 9th is my Napoleonic themed 40k PDF from Praxus.. Images curtsey warhammer monthly comics with some subtle Praxian changes ;-)

hey folks , sorry this pics took a while to surface ..

So like other folks my take on the Day will be in two parts .. The first will be my experience of it , and the second will a narrative about Vendrakes encounters ..

So The trip form Leeds to Nottingham went very smoothly , my early 7.34 am train getting there in plenty of time .. at 9.21am a few mins before PDH's train . I have been to Nottingham a few times before ,I hitch-hiked there when I was a teenager and stopped in the local youth hostel, and then gigged there a few times when I was in show business, at the legendary Rock city , and the not so legendary black Lotus , but none recently .. so I was keen to see more of the town centre . Unfortunately The timing never really allowed for this , apart from a a few pints after the event at a pub opposite the train station right on the canal .. which apparently is a nice half an hours walk to Warhammer world from there.one thing I would quite like to do in future.

PDH and I shred a cab to the event. and saw Mol and co entering just before we arrived .

Warhammer world (My first Impressions)

Now as kid ,I never had that burning desire to go to Warhammer world , I had no money and no armies,

gaming was not the primary draw to the hobby for me There always seemed to be huge crowds of people , and I have never been too fond of just being a face in the crowd.Saying that I have always wanted to make the pilgrimage as "Fulgrim" puts it in his blog ,there is something almost holy to us hoary gamers to visit the creationist place of our fantasy selves.

And thus over the years that desire has peaked , I did originally want to take my kids , but their involvement in my 40k hobby was a passing one. so that phase passed .

It was with mixed emotions I stepped out of that cab into the car park of an industrial estate..

I was here , after all these years.. But not as a Young artist like so longed to be as a kid , nor as a golden demon/ slayer sword winning painter , as many of us dream about. But not quite just as a tourist either..

Molotov's Event is something special , it really is an event a one off, Never have I seen so many fantastic artists come together to create something so unique within 40k.. The time invested in this event by all involved meant this was never going to be just a regular gaming session. Jacob Rune Nielson has sent over some of his Amazing models to participate, an event in itself . We where expecting some top draw guests and of course the chance to game in itself against some of these Legendary miniatures was a thing,especially since all I go on about , is how I don't ever game ;-)

So as I stood in that car park past and future expectations reached a pinnacle in my mind , Was this the culmination of two years work , blogging to save my sanity on dakka had led me here , there had already been so many highs over the past twelve months , meeting Peter PDH in real life , Chatting to my Art Idols John Blanche and tears of Envy Migsula , CM Dante , JRN, It felt like I was at the Oscars about to be awarded my lifetimes times achievement award.. And the Award for gratuitous over egoism in Blogging and 40k goes to

Neil101.....( cue clapping )

" I would like to thank Victor Von domm of dakka dakka, for his continued and unfailing support , when I was playing with catachans in my garden , he lifted me through the jungle with his riveted airship

Monkey troll for being a constant green skinned vigil over my terrible grammar, weety for reminding me why I Love oop minis again and Scarper for breathing soul into our little plastic/metal/resin men ,Perkustin for reminding me that the story is where it all begins.

and of course PDH for not taking any of my excuses / bullshit. and forcing me to constantly up my own expectations of what is possible with paint and patience, and everyone else who has taken time to skim read any of my posts and reply and of course Mol for allowing me to be a part of this once in a lifetime event.

I jest but its hard to overestimate (for an agnostic) the spiritual significance of coming to the birthplace of so many of your dreams and aspirations .. so many years invested in the output of this small group of unassuming commercial; looking buildings..

with all that spinning in my head in the thirty seconds it took to reach the heavy double doors.

Inside Now dark hallowed staircase leads up into the dwarven well lit halls . Scenery of every description fills my vision, and once again my head spins a little , Tables so large and breathtaking the internet pictures scarce do them justice .. I spy white and gold gilded Tolkien halls ,Deserted Tomb king temples , winter Imperial bastions beset by hoards of Pink demons, a drop pod ultramarine graveyard from a failed orbital assault .. and the largest most glorious Imperial city any denizen would be proud to defend with his life.. Come all ye here and Basque in the most glorious wonders the imperium can offer.. A shop staffed with forge world products , that can be cast to order .. I feel faint.. where is the bar ..

Bugmans is no slouch in the dining department either , a friendly professionally run bar.. what world is this where you can eat pie drink Ale and marvel at the orcs head hanging form a nearby wall ..

OHH glorianna bring on the games...

There are very good descriptions of the games over at ammo bunker , so this will just be an overview of my own games , a detailed in character write up will come later ..

Mol quickly orgamsised the gamers and gms into the first round .

At this point i must again Thank Peter PDH for taking time to write up Vendrake and co , Character sheets on the train journey down. ..so very kind , and if not for this gracious act I doubt I would have been able to participate in the actual gaming.

Game 1 , Vendrake vs Tybalt aka Neil101 vs keravin

This was my first game of Inq28 and it was gm'ed by the excellent marcoskoll who did a wonderful job of making me feel like I was a pro.

It was a game of wits , not a single shot fired .. just some psychic shenanigans .. It was a close run game with Tybalt wining over the techpriest contact we were arguing over and his ship!! with the help of his techpriest discovering vital information as leverage over the contact. A wonderful first experience for me , with Keravin being a gracious victor.

fave part the tension that built up whilst arguing our points to the techpriest was tangible , I thought for sure someone would start shooting !

Game 2

Vendrake Vs Benadice (Neil101 vs PDH) Gm'ed By Dazz1286

I had really hoped to play against Pete, something i had wanted to do for over a year, so very kind of Mol to organise our first match.

Vendrake and Benadice have some history ( Devan Kal Rosber her big brute , was from the same sector as Vendrake Phalanx ( Planet Cydonia ) and under his remit so when Benadice outed him as a heretic and had him execute his entire Noble family , Vendrake took the ensuing ramifications personally..

This was set on the same map , the wonderfully detailed and characterful Zone Mortalis board made by the super talented "Old guard"

This time Vendrake was trying to kidnap a scribe that Benadice had recruited to her cause.

Benadice proved a powerfull and scary enemy, her henchmen completely out gunned Vendrakes crew,

A slight twist in the end nearly swayed the game in Vendrakes favour , his Powerful psychic Voice turning the scribe to him, but it was not to be in the end .. Inqusitrix Benadice proved a worthy adversary and i am sure there will be more to add to this conflict..

best part for me was having Vendrake successfully use the puppet master Psychic ability for the first time, least favourite , having the famorian roll around on the floor and failing to do any damage whatsoever to Petes crusader. ( unsurprisingly )

Game 3

Vendrake Vs Titus Bell (Neil101 vs LittleBrother ) GM'ed by Tychonaut

This was going to be and interesting game , i had gotten used to the how the game played by now which meant I could take off the stabilizers somewhat ..

The game was set in a wondeful wooded area with white temple ruins punctuating the shrub

It was a convince the Magos ( made by the excellent cerabralerebus ) to join you game ,Vendrake started with the advantage because of his ability at coaxing folks to do his will .. But Titus didn't sit on his laurels, who had scouted the area and lay in wait with sniper support just in case things didn't go his way. As another Ordo xenos member Vendrake hoped to avoid direct combat , but soon became the target of an ambush , the magos convinced to join him, ran away to the drop ship leaving Vendrakes retinue to cover his retreat. A real good game and the only one I won , not through my skill but the lack of good dice rolls for Titus . Highlight for me of this game was The duke taking aim at Titus's plasma pistol and nearly shooting it out of his hands when things got hot .. least fave part, was socrates getting shot at by shotgun and diving behind a statue in shame ..lol

The board was a real pleasure to play over and again thanks goes to the gm Kerravin and to oldguard

Artisan Painting competition

The Day thus far had been great , so much to treasure , But now the big guns where out ,, John Blanche had turned up with Tears of Envy and they brought there Absolutely Amazing Warbands with them .. I so wish I had a photo of them to share But alas I don't . Personally i am hoping Some pictures will surface soon of both war bands as they are phenomenal .

Blanchitsu Awarded best Inquisitor/Inqusitrix To PDH's Benadice , a well deserved winner.

And Best retinue went to The equally Impressive Tybalt's retinue , again kerravin was a well deserved winner. His wardband had a strong unity that I noticed when I played him him in the first game.

Game 4 and the Helios succession Madine Assassination

So then there was the succession and the campaigning .. During the event we where given Candidates to vote for and polit for ,we had cards with Inquisitional allies to bet upon our games ..

if you won you won your cards back as well as your opponents and maybe a few gm ones. Given out for interesting play.

Even though Vendrake had lost three of the four games he still ended up with thirteen contacts , I think the most out of all players .. this could be because as conservative he waged less than other players ..?

As an outspoken Amalathian ordo xenos. Madine Has always been his first choice for Cabal leader..

and I was very happy when after a tie with Tybalt , Madine was chosen as the new successor..

My happiness was short lived though as it was announced that Madine was assassinated during her acceptance speech .. !

After that short lived Victory , My final games took place ..

A tryptych game with Rise of the magi ( Inquisitor Helsmarck, Wladimir Stratos and Khader Atamine.)

Fulgrim ( JRN's stunning Inqusitor Velk ) Vendrake -the famorian and the duke. Gmed by none other the Molotov himself. The game was played out on Pdhs's wonderful necromunda board.

The dastardly Velk was been chased across the board By Vendrake and co .and was intersected by Helsmarck.

The game got off to a slow start with the ageing Vendrake limping behind a speedy famorian and an indecisive duke. The famorian surpassed himself with his only connecting hit of the match by flaming Velk as he ducked behind an overhead Bulkhead , before forgetting he was a snake and couldn't climb ladders lol.:-0

A lacklustre chase form Vendrake and the duke failed to alight the game , and it was only the firefight that Helsmarck started that added any drama, leading Velk to headshot The inquisitor across the board with his bolt pistol and then make his dashing escape. across a footbridge..

This game cemented the idea to me that Vendrake when played in character is truly not a man of action any more , and snakes cant climb ladders !

As you can see a lot went on in that day , and Fulgrim put it best with " sensory Overload "

so much fun ..I have a few more pics that might go up. but i can honestly say whilst watching the sun set over Sheffield steel works on train journey home this was one of the best days of my life !!

regards

Neil

Just about done with Vendrakes Retinue , not enough time to finish some models to the standard i wanted , but i ma hapy with the overall result , Think i like the duke the best , or maybe the famorian .

Looking forward to Mol's Inquivitational Event tomorrow.. Had not had chance to learn the rules , so i may be watching form the sidelines , will post an after event photoshoot . ;-) wish me luck !

A map I made for The inqivitational of The Phrellian sub , which houses PDH,s Inqusitrix Benadice, and cohorts and also Phalanx system which houses Praxus and my very own Inquisitor Vendrake :-)

Just about done with the duke , he proved quite tricky , not used to painting so much detail. Not entirely happy with him , i did enjoy the practice , Gave him a punky looking stripe across his eyes.. a remnant of my plans for the Virago , the Amazonian based on bladerunner's "Pris" , who is not going to make it into this retinue at the moment. Have to thank The spikey rat boy IzeColt as the skunk hair cut is pretty much inspired by the " rifle man

Just about finished the famorian Techpriest , Going to add some blood to his arco whips using the tamiya clear red when it arrives. Here is the Inspiration..

blood tutorials

another

and another

and a finalI painted the beastman model last night, finished him off this morning, I haven't painted anything since the Tor so this was nice treat, ( always had a soft spot for the 40k beastieboys ) I had picked up some new paints. Some new GW stuff , love the new shades glazes and the textured base stuff. the white and red is really good for covering black .

Also tried the P3 range , I fell in love with the gold , such good coverage . Now I am not the best person to ask for advice about paints .. but i like what i saw .

but most impressive of all, was some opaque rust effect paints from model mate's

Modelmates rust effect opaque

the red is great .. but they are water and alcohol based , I don't seal my models so its not problem for me .But it does feel different to most paints i have used , more like an inky wash that you can wipe of with water.. i really like it though it suits my painting style .

I picked up these by mistake ( I had seen this on End transmissions dakka blog )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcHufzVR5Dk

I have that on order now , don't think it will be much different to the rusty red opaque though.

I have to say the Aerosols they do look really useful to me ..for making terrain look ..old.

I have been thinking about colour recently , something don't do enough really , to help me visualise schemes I picked up a load of free Dulux paint guides, from the homebase ,

good way of helping me come up with interesting colour schemes quickly

picked some good Kolinsky Sable brushes series 33 size ( 0- 2/0/ -1 )from Rosemary &Co cheap and great service ..

https://www.rosemaryandco.com/

recommended by LilLooser on his great painting blog

Bring on the paint ;-)

Aye up folks its been a while .. I had some cool news I have been officially invited to Commissar Molotov's Inqivitational .. This Is great news for me , as I don't game , will be a chance to meet other folks who share my love of the hobby. And as I don't game PDH is very kindly giving me pointers with regards to weapons and such .. This is the Inquisitor that I will be bringing to the event . Still working on the other retinue members , I need five more in total but cant decide on the final two members ..sorry for the ramshackle pics its all wip at teh moment;-)

Just discovered the work of this forerunner urban street Artist , More pics in the gimme bar.

interview

Neil101http://www.blogger.com/profile

Witch Burning

In the marketplace they are piling the dry sticks.

A thicket of shadows is a poor coat. I inhabit

The wax image of myself, a doll's body.

Sickness begins here: I am the dartboard for witches.

Only the devil can eat the devil out.

In the month of red leaves I climb to a bed of fire.

It is easy to blame the dark: the mouth of a door,

The cellar's belly. They've blown my sparkler out.

A black-sharded lady keeps me in parrot cage.

What large eyes the dead have!

I am intimate with a hairy spirit.

Smoke wheels from the beak of this empty jar.

If I am a little one, I can do no harm.

If I don't move about, I'll knock nothing over. So I said,

Sitting under a potlid, tiny and inert as a rice grain.

They are turning the burners up, ring after ring.

We are full of starch, my small white fellows. We grow.

It hurts at first. The red tongues will teach the truth.

Mother of beetles, only unclench your hand:

I'll fly through the candles' mouth like a singeless moth.

Give me back my shape. I am ready to construe the days

I coupled with dust in the shadow of a stone.

My ankles brighten. Brightness ascends my thighs.

I am lost, I am lost, in the roves of all this light.

Slylvia Plath

I stumbled across this blog courtesy of a Games workshop Leeds face book painting group .

I Am surprised I have never heard of JBA before, his work is sheer brilliance , attention to detail and historical accuracy a military engineer would be proud of..combined with a warped perspective of reality . Very good stuff indeed. I also like his advice for dioramas on his "about me " page.

Mr scratch mod I first found when looking to paint convincing rust on a MkV tank His work is stunning in the recreation of rust and dirt, I have yet to see anyone surpass his technical ability. his blog has some cool tutorial;s too .

Gurney Journey: Is Moonlight Blue?:

just needs paint love now

I have been using several cool internet galleries recently

thought you guys might appreciate them , I especially like the national gallery virtual tour. and the google art project , although wikipaintings is cool too.

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/visiting/virtualtour/#/central-hall/

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/

http://www.googleartproject.com/

http://www.wikipaintings.org/

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections.php

http://www.kurtwenner.com/

http://whitecube.com/

One for yourself

http://www.ebsqart.com/

and one for fun

http://replaceface.tumblr.comLove these guys , I reckon working for these folks would be as much fun as working for GW

I remember as a kid , thinking if i cant be a a children's book illustrator i want to make props for movies

http://www.wetanz.com/miniatures-model-making/

http://www.wetanz.com/models-miniatures/

http://www.herr-der-ringe-film.de/v3/de/filme/galerie/setsuszenen/minas-tirith/minas-tirtith-1_1.php

Doing a lot of research on sculpture recently, these guys names keep popping up time and time again , I think between them their work is probably amongst the most widely recognized film sculpture.

http://www.brianmuirvadersculptor.com/index.html

http://www.keithshortsculptor.com/

Neil101http://www.blogger.com/profile/01755198543735153564noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6144789091849634597.post-19095221388025720012012-02-29T12:52:00.003-08:002012-02-29T12:57:54.016-08:00

working on a Dark mechanicus 40k frankenstein horror theme dio , slow process though, my passion for space crusade has been satiated by the new forge world scenery , couldn't really afford to kit bash one anyhow , would be twice the price. looking at loads of inspiration recently, saved most to the gimme bar , but i couldnt save the most excellent movies including the interesting countess , better than the anna friel abthory versionversion but not as interesting as the Walerian Borowczyk

version Contes immoraux ;-)

looking at the classic archetypes and following my my 40k grimdark gut , lots to do yet going to pick up some more stuff tomorrow to try and complete the build , really trying to make this look as realistic as possible , i want rocky outcrops , so i plaster cast my garden rocks , cool but quite limited and heavy , fish tank resin rocks look cool too, as do the railway enthusiast stuff , rubber molds etc.. lots of tips in there forums tried to make rubber molds too but failed ;-) thinking winter black powder planet. ravens gravestones etc. wip stuff on the dakka blog asap Cheers folks

COOL!!!!!!! Now that is an Anniversary present ,

Space crusade ! yay well that solves my problem ;-) cheers forgeworld folks. obviosuly you are just sat inside my head making real all my 40k fantasies at the moment so please may i have now a new imperial army horus heresy style with necromunda pattern long lasguns funky sun glasses and medics and ordelies , oh ..but without the huge heads and tiny bodies , many thanks for this happy hobbyist. now just need some dosh !

Zone mortalis REALM OF BATTLE ZONE Forgeworld

Just a teaser..made a mock up of the grey knights poses today , also the Elysian command Hq arrived , so tiny , but amazing details , this is my first Elysian :-) , well technically LJ's , Bj gets the dkok grenadiers and Rj , the cadian enviro suits.

had a brain wave regarding the board , that will make it possible to have my cake and eat it hopefully, the walls were causing me no end of bother , so i decided to get rid of any exterior walls and only have interior walls and corners.. also setteld on the height too , just over head height , which happens to be the same height as the floor tiles and the regular walls when laid on there sides. don't worry i know what i am talking about ..;-) hopefully will get some grey knight termi legs at some point in the future.cheers folksI collated the rest of the the materiel i am using as reference for the board game , speaking of which i have had a nice chillout day today not much done on the game only research , quite tempted to build a ruined Radical inquisitors monastery , as a small game board ( and a diversion) lots of drama emotion and multiple levels and sculpture and less tables and charts and tight corridors where my fingers get stuck mmm.. will see where this takes me.. i can always pull it apart and use on the game board afterwords. I have been straddling a fine line between emotion and design in the board game , i want huge sprawling rooms overhung with high Gothic drama , filled to the brim with servitors , and tight dark claustrophobic narrows, where monsters lurk in the dark. design wise i get tiny corridors where i can hardly see the miniatures let alone move them, reducing the wall size to just over the minis heads gives me space but i loose emotional impact . going wider doubles the space and the cost :-/ qaundry qaundry , the whole one level thing is leaving me cold too, but its so practical for the strategy element, game play vs eye candy . I guess there is something to be said for flat 2d boards , they are like the book of a film , your imagination is forced to do the hard work. Whilst working on this i had thought about eye level and miniatures, i know we all probably play on a tabletop and look down on our minis , this makes sense for tactical stuff, but i have always wanted to be a part of the action too, raising scenery of the table a few feet or 1 foot and sitting gives a pretty different perspective on things , the lovely detail of the scenery and the minis , creates a cool vibe , just a thought .

I did some experimenting with extrude polystyrene foam spray a few weeks back , thought it might make a cool alternative to heavier stuff i have been using for scenery . worked quite well , nice and light and fairly strong , , haven't tried painting it yet though.

I have also been adding my research trawls to the Gimme bar link to the left , thanks to Tears for the heads up on this useful tool.

My reference material is normally not usually all cannon GW stuff , i like the obscure , but for the board game i am attempting an exercise in frugality. Also i missed the BFG stuff when it came out first time , so i find this a great opportunity to swat up on all those lovely free pdf's , i have collected the art works together along with some of my other reference stuff.Sorry for the absence folks , i have been unusually busy burning the candle at both ends , creatively speaking of course. ( well except for that one night at the cinema to see the very scary women in black ) and the other equally scary boys night out ;-) I have had a great desire to create a board game for a long while , a game i can play with my three boys hopefully before they are men. and pack away tidy afterwords, i know i should probably just buy space hulk or something similar , but i like to make my life difficult ;-) i have tried and failed several times , a long winded zombie rpg set in the uk using satellite maps for travel ,waay before goggle earth lol, a rather cool alien board game , then an over ambitious halo strategy game . The thing is these games are cool but they are not 40k and ever since i was a lad space crusade space hulk and advanced space crusade have defined how starship boarding actions games should be. fast and fun. This is what i want to create now a fast paced boarding action style game with only the best models and only gw and forge world models , well except for a possible set of mantics ghouls and zombies as they would be great to use as the lower deck indentured slaves. and the few privateer press minis i have hanging about waiting to be turned into something useful. I have had a bit of an epiphany of late , regarding minis , when i started to get back into the hobby proper last year , i was bewildered by the amount of wonderful minis out there , my cadians and catachans seemed like bulky lego in comparison to the wonderful foreworld or infinity minis , but i really like the old imperial army metal breast plates so i set about converting my minis into a more realistic art scale sizing , this worked quite well, especially for small skirmish game play well but it was hard work and my sculpting was messy compared to the super high detail on the mini. fine for impressionistic style work , but i fancy something cleaner at the moment . When i set about designing the game i found a new desire for the minis to be gaming pieces and not art pieces , the once chubby and samey cadians suddenly looked perfect for a ship based baording action game , with tight corners , no room for heroic poses here , compact large plain areas for bold paint schemes unit identification and such , I guess what i am saying is that i have come full circle , using the forgeworld environmental suits along with considered poses , allowed me to see the potential of the games workshop plastic cadians again ;-)

I am still in the early stages of design ,   but the hard work is done , i have decided to create a 4 player game

set aboard an Astra telepathica Blackship Just after the events of the howling In M34 , The ship carries a contingent of pskers guarded by the sisters of silence . amongst the pskers a sensei is discovered an adapatus custode emissary is sent for, but a power struggle ensues with the resident ordo mallues inquisitor , secretly an illuminati member and extremist ordo hydra member, his contentious acolyte and the ships lord captain and naval crew contingent form the other key players.

it will be set on a faithful 3d remake of the space crusade boards including dreadnought and eldar attack along with an additional piece that i can use to represent larger areas like the bridge or engine rooms , hanger ect..

chracters i have lined up for the players so far , include

player 1 five ordo malleus (truish scale) , one acolyte ( solomon lok ) plus 4 lesser henchmen , five inqusitorial stromtroopers ( dkok grenadiers )

player 2 five adaptus custode emissaries , five sisters of silence , five imperial navy armsmen ( hostile environment suited cadians )

player 3 Naval bridge crew , astropath captain navigator , master at arms , master of the watch.

5 armsmen , ( elysian command hq )   adaptus mechanicus , techpriest bridge laison, 2 enginseers , two servitors.

player 4 illuminatus inquisitor , corteaz , deamons , ect..

misc, ships crew , deamons , chaos marines ?

The game is played as strategy and action ( a bit like advanced space crusade , or rather the original Jervis Johnson warmaster horus heresy , horus barge game published in white dwarf ages ago , which i think might have made it onto the new horus heresy game   ?   move around the ship on the strategy map then play out fights using the 3d action board map . still needs a lot of work , as i keep getting distracted by building things .;-) its a long project probably all year , and quite pricy too .so feel free to send any left over building this way .;-)

Inpsiration came from fantasy flights rogue trader core rulebook , its work on the interior details of frigates is great, also Jes Goodwins brilliant naval concept art , and finally the illustrations from battlfleet gothic.

links

cool custodes

cool ships

Just wanted to share with you this Really great Surrealist / magical realist art blog http://surrealistisch.blogspot.com/
and a video

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/cathedral/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/nationalmuseumsliverpool/303438561/in/photostream/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/99619150@N00/371835248/in/photostream/

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation/departments/models/lutyens/gallery/index.aspx

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation/departments/models/lutyens/gallery/casting/

http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/conservation/departments/models/lutyens/gallery/details/

I still haven't finished the army or the novel , but i have created lots sub stories surrounding the main characters and models. As its nearing the end of this year , i thought i would round up all the best bits of work i have created over the last twelve months. I will start with Praxus ,a s it covers a vast area of my creativity and I could use a bit of a kick up the arse to finish the army and the , novels.

Here is a collection of some short stories Praxus

and a collection of the models and artworks so far.

Some say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover , obviously these people hadn't seen A monster calls, with the terrific illustrations of Jim Kay.
I stumbled across the work of Jim kay two months ago when i first started this blog. I was researching Ian Miller and noticed that he had his website linked under the blogroll, I had also noted his work on the Alison Eldred site too. These two things were enough to prompt investigation . His work is beautiful full of atmosphere and lurking horror. I have had a thing for farmers ploughed fields and lone pylons for a fair few years and it seems , that i am not the only one eitherConnections and how we make them are important to me .. for instance I connect 40k to a time and a place ,

For me my 40k will always be British slightly surreal and a rebel at heart. I made this connection growing up , at first with John Blanche's artwork in the sorcery series that put two fingers up at other twee fantasy art of the time. But also the spirit of the time, the anti Margret Thatcher conservative rebellious youth of the 80s England, captured so spiritedly with this Ian miller piece from the Legendary Artbook Ratspike , Python ,specifically Terry Gilliam, Brazil, Jabberwocky, The adventure of Baron Munchhausen and Time bandits all have huge similarities to my 40k, Douglas Adams too. Without even pointing out Dune. I love watching these again as an adult , the anti authoritarian slightly bizarre " Magical realism " elements sit so well with my first experiences of Warhammer. The original Warhammer 40k- Rogue trader is arguably even more grim than the grim 40k we have nowadays just look at The will lees40k stuff , the Ink black future scrivened cold By seemingly daemon tormented artists.Sat well with the social climate . Then 40k got slightly cartoonish , the models looked great on the table all reds and primaries , and i loved the board games that came out around this time , so many creative highs . But this coincided with girls for me and girls won out :-) Now a few years on and having been back in the hobby realm for just over a year , its really nice to come back to a grim dark 40k world, The last two versions of 40k have been getting progressively darker , which suits me to a tee. And seeing the influx of 28mm inquisitors and necromunda stuff over the last year is very encouraging . Its also nice to see JB championing other styles of painting alongside "Eavy Metal" demi gods and the CMON Insane one year one project paint jobs . ( I honestly dislike the idea of miniatures or any other art form being reduced down to a marks out of ten idea. )

I have alway like the idea of Terra being a huge world of civil servants The idea administorum is so uniquely British. Our slightly perverse fetish for queuing at post offices and bus stops taken to its extreme.

to that end I have made a Administratum ordinate printing out death tickets for long dead officials . Its obviously based on the rather amazing painting by John Blanche. I did want to use the servitor from the DKOK but i made do with what was at hand.

In the mouth of madness

stalker

Kin dza dza

Dune

Time bandits

The adventures of Baron Münchhausen

Pandorum

Dark City

La jetee

Delicatessen

Perfume : story of a murderer

Hellraiser

City of the lost children

Twelve Monkeys

Death and the compass

Brazil

Altered States

In the mouth of madness

The gift on you tube here very intriguing

40k Rogue Trader art Will Lees ?

I first stumbled across the work of Doré when researching the divine comedy , his image of the forest of suicides gave me goosebumps. I found a site with a lot of his pics here and i thought i would add these mariner plates to sit alongside the writing. and here

Raggedly ran, between schylla and charibdis. All hands the bosun’s yell .

Aye Aye sir. Axial fire astern, dim anchor lights. Apparent solar winds awash with mute dread sailors souls, aweigh the anchor..anchor watch, Avast ye banyan. Balls to four ! Clear the backstays

and belay the pins. A baggy wrinkle servitor beats to quarters. Bar pilot, batten down the hatches

and bear away. The nautilus norn queen gains upon us. Her golden ration curls like kraken. Unfurled tendrils outstretched in sombre space, grasping, clasping, covetous, gluttonous ..prehensile thing. Bonded jacky barrelman , purge the bilge keels or face the bimmy. Aye sir, and cut the bobstay the boom gallows wont hold .. the bitter end is nigh boys.. praise the emperor praise the machine god. Discordant chatter noised from cold vox castors, static bursts of lingua technis formed dissonant shanties and paroxysmic mechadendrites danced the jig.

She's upon us now lads, The brightwork was first to go but the bulkheads will last longer .Bowline bristled with bowchasers, load the guns, torpedoe ready.. bowsprits gone sir. Never mind ..fire!

A lone boy seamen, buoyed by victory , brass monkey cold brailed the bow thruster and watched in awe the fireworks glow.

Bring to, boys! Aye sir, The buffers here , best behaviour , Is it.. dead..? barrelman what say ye ?

Bionic eyes pierced the pitch, searching for movement … quite lads...still ..time stopped and calm descended... pipes hissed against there will.......well ..what say ye man ..nothing..?

A spasm of life sir or maybe a convulsion of death.. which is it boy.. …..Life sir .. its moving again.

Silent despondent sighs echoed in mens minds..

Heave to, coxswain bring her about, bulwarks swayed in deep space, lance it with the boomkin.

Belay that order bosun, a rasping man porcelain cold, the Admiral heads to the warpgate,

Without a Navigator ?

The buffers top lip made a quiver..

Aye Aye sir.

Full ahead. The corinthian eyed a capstan crojack. Chronometer dials rotation increased. Clew lines away sir, chime the hull the cardinals off kilter. Shall I Carreen her ? Aye and bring about the caulkers , there is much to repair.

Two thousand leagues on the Queen and still she bore down. By the Emperor , she has the chainwhale. , Into the eddies . The catheads snapped one by one, add the corrector to the binnacle . The catboats gone sir .. We must cut and run. Close haul boys , keep her steady ..

The maelstrom..its pulling us in.. tumultuous turbines toiled in turmoil. Engines belched brace but the vortex vexed , Undetectable undercurrents captured centrelines , The dead wood is broaching..

pull back man.. or Davy Jones will have us all.

Where is the Queen?

Derricking deckheads chain blazed to the devil seam glanced aft to see the dogvane fall silent. Swirling currents swallowed whole the frenzied cephaloped and once again we sat in the doldrums.

A trip into Leeds on Friday to finish off my annual xmas shopping revealed

two little known phenomenon Airplane parking and the mythical Lost valley

I didn't go to school much as a kid , but when I did , art and history and English literature were the only topics that held my attention, consequently not learning much about history when growing up has given me an enormous appetite as an adult for these things, and when I stumble across something new I am usually very excited. One huge gap in my knowledge is British history between the Tudors and the Victorians , shameful I know , but i discovered something that most of you reading this will already know. And if you didn't shame on you too ;-) The " they couldn't make it up" story of the after life of Oliver Cromwell's noggin. I wont bore you with the details , that's what Wikipedia is for , but i found a couple of cool links that explains it in a rather fun way.

OLIVER CROMWELL'S HEAD from Kevin Baldwin on Vimeo.

Gnarled roots writhed rigid, mournful branches swayed sorrow laments and bark splintered with whip cracking vexation. A shower of wrathful barbs nicked and pricked but the tormentor chanted on . Wailing, creaking, twisting The sylvan sapling scant boar its arduous burden, but the impassive inquisitorial seal held firm, “Emperor forgive me” burnt umber crept over rough ridges kindled black as soot. Old eyes followed a woody ripple run from root to tip whilst knotted holes gazed implacable .

Imperial Life 1

Hello again Here is a dio i have been working on for the last month , it started out as a scenic base for a custom arbite jetbike but ended up being a long held ambition to recreate two of my favorite Confrontation Necromunda sketches.

Pax imperial trooper in great coat , by Jes Goodwin ( don't know the official title ) and Ash waste nomad by John Blanche, I wanted to blend the two drawings into a diorama .

Here goes nothing...

I found this book for fifty pence , in a second hand charity shop.. I had never heard of the Terran Trade Authority books by Stewart Cowley until then. But Like all things the connections were there just not that apparent.

Its a wonderful book , full of short stories about lost civilizations and doomed space explorers , illustrated throughout with full colour pullouts by talented science fiction artists of the time. There are four books in the original TTA series all published between 1978 and 1980. Unfortunately there are pretty pricy on the net and i have not picked up the others yet. But from what i have seen of this one, they are real gems, especially if you are a fan of that early 80s airbrushed sci fi art . The artists deserved research, and what a plethora of fantastical vistas opened up before me when i did ..

the cover picture was painted by Fred Gambino who has moved into 3d art as well as concept art for films according to his bio on his website. lots of nice images there too.

this Gambino image caught my eye for the use of an angular space helmet and after a bit of digging i found that most/some? of the art used in the TTA books were not originally commisioned for the books, being originally commissioned as sci fi book jackets etc. This image for TTA according to Simon Jones who tracked down the intentional books and stories the art was used for and Phillip R Banks who has published his finding along with his own additions in this website http://www.khantazi.org/Rec/TTABooks/ImageRef.html

Looks to be a reworking of an original art work for the 1974 Harlan Ellison Sci fi anthology Dangerous visions-1 which by all accounts is a good read. Both paintings are great examples of the mystery these books could conjure alongside the hauntingly beautiful stories inside.

The art of Peter Elson who sadly died back in 1998 is also widly used in the book. This 3 page pullout image

is the most memorable image in the book for me. Its daring fisheye perspective panorama pulls the viewer into the doomed wreck.

Angus Mckie Is another artist in the book who's work is enticing I noticed that one image from the space wreck book had graced the hallowed front cover of White dwarf back in the day.. It made me wonder If John Blache had given it the thumbs up.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_McKie

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Angus_McKie

Other Artists in the book include

Tony Roberts

Bob layzell

http://www.sci-fi-o-rama.com/category/artist/bob-layzell/

Colin Hay

Robin Hiddon

Alan Daniels

http://tyrell-corporation.pp.se/alan-daniels-blade-runner-artist/

http://beaudaniels.com/

Most of these Young Artists were represented by the Sarah Brown agency and The Young Artists agency now Arena? I have noted that Alison Eldred is acting as an agent for some of these legendary Artists.

Special mention goes of course to the following luminaries who have all colluded to bring us wondefull new worlds.

Les Edwards The first art book i bought was Ratspike published by GW with John Blanche and Ian Miller

The second was The solo Blood & Iron that housed some great paintings of this sci fi maestro

Ian Miller who has a new animation linked on the Alison Eldred website

An animation collaboration between Ian Miller and Stijn Windig, with music by John Farah.

Voice talent by Ian Champion

Jacobs Lament vimeo Video

Jacobs Lament with still images

John Harris

Chris Foss

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Foss

Chris Moore

Jim Burns

All these artists and many more can be found at this amazingly resourceful blog

and this book looks really cool if you can get hold of it.

What really inspires me about these artists and this book in particular is the wonder that the artists manage to conjure up in my head , Now i don't know if its a little rose tinted glasses from a time before the shuttle program was defunct.. But these pictures although sombre ..pose hope at our ability to survive and reminds us of our greatest asset.. to wonder what lies out there waiting for us.. Oh and its pretty good material for creating a Magos Explorator team clad in chunky moebius samurai style space suits ;-)

Here goes nothing...

Peter Elson ...http://www.peterelson.co.uk/

I found this book for fifty pence , in a second hand charity shop.. I had never heard of the Terran Trade authority books by Stewart Cowley until then. But Like all things the connections were there just not that apparent.

Its a wonderful book , full of short stories about lost civilizations and doomed space explorers , illustrated throughout with full colour pullouts by talented science fiction artists of the time. There are four books in the series all published between 1978 and 1980. Unfortunately there are pretty pricy on the net and i have not picked up the others yet. But from what i have seen of this one they are real gems, if you are a fan of that early 80s airbrushed sci fi art . The artists deserved research, and what a plethora of world opened up to when i did ..

the cover picture was painted by Fred Gambino who has moved into 3d art as well as concept art for films according to his bio on his website. lots of nice images there too.

http://www.fredgambino.co.uk/index.html

and along with Tony Roberts

http://www.tonyrobertsart.co.uk/

Peter Elson

http://www.peterelson.co.uk/

Angus Mckie I noticed that one image from the space wreck book had graced the hallowed front cover of White dwarf back in the day..

http://www.avzl17.dsl.pipex.com/index.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angus_McKie

http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Angus_McKie

These artist along with other great british artists of the time like John Harris

http://www.alisoneldred.com/artistJohnHarris.html

http://astrona.blogspot.com/2007/09/john-harris-sci-fi-art.html

Chris Foss

http://www.chrisfossart.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Foss

Jim Burns

http://www.alisoneldred.com/artistJimBurns.html

Bob layzell

Alan Daniels

http://tyrell-corporation.pp.se/alan-daniels-blade-runner-artist/

http://heavenlyhussys.com/gallery4.html

http://beaudaniels.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terran_Trade_Authority

http://www.khantazi.org/Rec/TTABooks/TTABooks.html

The Terran Trade Authority is a science-fiction setting originally presented in a collection of four large illustrated science fiction books published between 1978 and 1980. This series was written by Stewart Cowley under the pseudonym "Steven Caldwell".

all these arits and many more can be found at this amazingly resourceful blog Hi there , I am Neil, father of three boys, i live in the north of England ..Leeds to be precise, and enjoy being creative. I hope this blog will help me expand my creativity in writing stories , poetry ,animation, illustration, sound art comics , building scenery for miniatures and painting miniatures. I am currently working on several projects ...er.. I am always working on several projects actually, and never quite managing to finish any..mmm..

I like games workshop mythology , I am a child of the 80s therefore the Goonies, Steven king, Steven Spielberg, the A-team and grange hill will forever hold a special place in my heart. But i actually spent most of my youth with my head in fantasy books and body in video games arcades.. So it will be no surprise for you to guess i am a huge fan of computer / console games in general and John Blanche art in particular . I have been told that you shouldn't meet your heroes as you would be disappointed , The pessimist in me says yep for sure.. whilst the fan boy in me screams sod it !

I hope this space will be a reflection of my life and the artistic endeavors i embark upon , as well as the more inspirational elements of life.

I like to dig deep and find the meanings of things , i also tend to seek out the similarities amongst us as a race , i am a big fan of surreal things .. David lynch, terry Gilliam ,Spike Milligan, dadaism being the first things that spring to my mind but also of the traditional stories , and mythology.

With that in mind i hope you enjoy your visit ..

https://distopican.blogspot.com/2013/06/opus-maius-historia.html

Distopus

Friday 27 January 2023

opus mais historia re upload

Artisan Painting competition

Game 4 and the Helios succession Madine Assassination

Witch Burning

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