I have waited a long time for the Upgrade Sprues to be available separately, so it’s off to my FLGS to pick up 2 of them. I hope these will breath life into my troops and actually get them on the painting table ahead of my prevarication units Warmaster Dire Wolves – more on them in a Hobby Update coming soon!
I’m struggling with new arrival to paint anything more complicated than a wolf, or a Hobgrot though so there may be more delays ahead.
Peter
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for February
I said I had a surprise last month, so here it is. With no spending last month, it means I’m able to afford the Greywater Fastness Start Collecting box!
The Thane is also the old Dwarf special Character Belegar Ironhammer. So this could feasibly be a Karak eight peaks force.
So all in all, our 8th Edition Fantasy army now looks like:
HEROES Belegar Ironhammer (305) Runesmith (60)
CORE 20x Dwarf Warriors (190) – Full Command 10x Thunderers (150) – Full Command
SPECIAL 1x Gyrocopter (80) 10x Ironbreakers (170) – Full Command
Total Points: 955/1,000
With upgrades, etc, this should round out to a nice 1,000-point army. Now I’ve got my first cohort collected I need to get building and painting!
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+27.20
£27.20
Feb Budget
+25.00
£52.20
Greywater Fastness: Start Collecting!
-52.00
£0.20
Brett
BUDGET – Australia – $75 for February
After last’s months slowdown I’ve chosen to come roaring back in February completing both the Heavy Weapons Team and building the first of 2 vehicle, a Chimera, so now our squads have some more mobility. In the end the Heavy Weapons Squad was easy, just carrying forward the paint scheme established on the Infantry Squads. Grey with some black on boots and helmets. I’ve tried to give the mortar a Parkerised type finish, the result is a little more green than I wanted but the variety is important. I used Vallejo 70.924 Russian Uniform WW2 in the model colour range. I’ve also picked up some Zandri Dust, a very useful beige which I frequently mix with greens and sometimes reds for different effects (a lot of even lightish browns have a red pigment in them, Zandri doesn’t and tones down the warmth).
I mentioned before Christmas that I would explain my colour scheme, such as it is. I was inspired by Midwinter Mini’s Blackstone fortress series and the Traitor Guard he paints in it. They make use of their prime coat (a Halfords Grey I think) as the basic uniform. I thought that was a great idea. It fits really well with my concept of the army. After millennia of supplying regiments to the aspirations of the empire another call to arms has arrived, this time several broken regiments are combined and new recruits added. There are questions, some unspoken, there are gods but they are made to fight against them. They can rise to glory and bask in the benevolence of these gods but they must cast of the shackles of the Ecclesiarchy. And so it began, Imperial symbols torn off, equipment left undyed and still issued.
That gives us grey uniforms, with black helmets and boots (minimum of paint required to blacken the helmets). Equipment is left in natural metal or blackened (anodised). The lasguns are fiberglass (I’ve used a dark grey) with metal collimators (maybe the batteries should be metal as well). Heavy equipment Parkerized and tanks painted grey. I’m trying to avoid significant gradient steps on the tanks which would be aiming points. In general there should be no bright points either. It turns out is a little bit of a struggle and we’ve had to get a few extra paints this month. After priming I’ve gone back over the hull stippling with a blended grey.
I then used Agrax Earthshade on the sides and underbelly (stippled) and Basilicum Grey Contrast on the tracks and upper sides before picking details with Leadbelcher and some Frostheart on the glass blocks. Basilicum Grey cut 50/50 with water has become my go to in place of Nuln Oil in a lot of cases. For someone with over 5000 pts of Necron I never thought I’d move on from Nuln Oil. I’ll add I’m not happy with the bases on the mortar teams and will have to think about basing.
I’m aware that there is a similarity with WW1 and early WW2 German uniforms, it’s not deliberate but it’s there. Early in WW2 Germany had amassed a military from mostly civilian factories to hide their preparation. Making a lot of camoflage paint would have been a bit obvious. And it was early days for camoflage. My army is doing the same, moving from Imperial stocks to local manufacture without the Imperium. Their units mostly fought in space and there’s not a lot of greenery in a ship.. I hope that gives some context to the scheme, next month onto the Command Squad and then. Before that I’ll leave you with an image of my small traitor Guard regiment.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+105.01
$105.01
February Budget
+75.00
$180.01
Chimera
-52.14
$127.86
Frostheart
-9.09
$118.77
Basilicum Grey
-9.09
$109.68
Zandri Dust
-5.06
$104.62
Vallejo Russian Uniform
-5.69
$98.93
Agrax Earthshade
-9.09
$89.84
Astra Militarum Codex
-66.36
$23.48
Dave
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for February
I’m afraid the project has been on hiatus this month. While I still love Ogors, my AoS hype well has run very dry indeed and I’ve been working on other projects. Mainly these have been Warhammer Fantasy Wood Elves and making a start on some terrain for Warmaster. So, no painting or purchases this week but I may come back to this next time. Cheers!
Having saved money in December, I had enough money to get the most important aspect of an Astra Militarum army… the new book. As always support your FLGS, but if they are out of stock, you can always go via Element Games in the UK (affiliate link).
I am still struggling to find a colour scheme that I like, and that is relatively easy… also a new arrival in the house is making it difficult to make room for hobby… but hopefully I’ll get back on it soon.
Peter
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for January
I’ve plans for next month, but unfortunately that means saving up this months budget to afford it!
That being said, I have got the base coats down on those Thunderers.
We’ve already amassed a fair amount of Dawi, and the surprise next month will add a lot more! So far we have:
Runelord
20 Dwarf Warriors
10 Thunderers
My first thoughts around the background is that this small force is from a backwater Dwarf fortress and is looking to reclaim its territory from the encroaching Greenskins. Yes, I know, cliché. But that’s all I’ve got so far.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+2.95
£2.95
Jan Budget
+25.00
£27 20
Brett
BUDGET – Australia – $75 for January
I feel like I’ve let the side down a little this month. I had to relocate my family and unfortunately it’s taken most of the month. So I haven’t finished my Heavy Weapons team or started a new model this month. That means next month (February) I’ll have a lot to catch up on, finishing the Heavy Weapons team, building a vehicle and my command squad. Comment if you think i should build a Le Man Russ or a Chimera?
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+30.01
$30.01
January Budget
+75.00
$105.01
Patrick
BUDGET – United States – $35 for January
Unfortunately, Patrick is our first withdrawal from the series. Time commitments have meant that Patrick won’t be able to devote enough time to the series in the future.
Don’t worry, though. Patrick isn’t leaving Woehammer! In fact, he’s been working hard with Peter updating the warscroll data cards.
Dave
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for January
Happy New Year to you and your Warglutt. I had a bit of catching up to do this month and also a few pounds to spend!
I managed to pick up an Ogor Tyrant for £15 from Troll Trader, but I have no instructions, but hopefully, I can figure it out. In the meantime, I finished off another six Ogor Gluttons for a total of twelve and a whopping 520 points. That means I can now field two battle lines, and with the new Tyrant, I can get some nice starter games in.
Saving a tenner from this month means I can start looking to add some gravy to my meat and potatoes next month…. Gravy with massive great weapons!
In a future month, I will want to pick up a butcher and the maw pot terrain, not necessary for Path to Glory games, but I will want it for matched play. Anyway, Conan never mentioned it, but surely slow cooking your enemies into a delicious stew should have been on the ‘best things’ list, especially for the protein.
Following my purchases last month it was my intention to have the models assembled and undercoated in black by now… but alas life has got in the way and I have failed to achieve it. The good news is that this means that my January budget is going to look healthy enough to pick up the paints I need, and to allow me to get started with a vengeance in the New Year, when the Astra Militarum will return.
So the December budget is merely added to my carried forward and I have £32.16 remaining. I’ll need to pick up a white spray in January so I can do ‘OSL’ or ‘Slapchop’ undercoating (I’ll explain all next month), and then pick up some colours. Still not 100% sure on my scheme but likely to be red & white! (Oh god, why white??)
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+£7.16
£7.16
Dec Budget
£25.00
£32.16
A hobby supply month
Peter
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for December
This month I needed to get something to actually base the minis with!
Looking on Amazon I found exactly what I needed! 100 square 20mm bases for just £11.50!
Going back to Print3DMiniaturesUK, I was so impressed with the Dwarf Warriors that I bought 10 Dwarf Thunderers from there as well. Luckily for me there was also 15% off, so I managed to pick them up for just £12.75!
As the Dwarf Wariors arrived so late last month, I had a lot of catching up to do! I quickly set to work and set aside a few evenings to get the base colours down on the Warriors.
They’re nothing much to look at yet, but with the addition of a few key wa
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+2.20
£2.20
Dec Budget
+25.00
£27 20
100x 20mm Square Bases
-£11.50
£15.70
10x Dwarf Marksmen
-£12.75
£2.95
Brett
BUDGET – Australia – $75 for December
I was early last month and now I’m running late to get my team together, crazy season leading into Christmas and new battleforces haven’t helped but I’ll make it. Unfortunately I needed to finish some Chaos Chosen and Possessed for a local 40k Tournament (3 round RTT – I ran Red Corsairs for 1/2 result). And then I decided I needed more Grey Knight Paladins for a list I want to run in the first tournament of the year for me (Exterminatus VI 7/8 January in Wagga Wagga).
Enough excuses, I finally started to assemble the team on Boxing Day and they’re done. I’ll fall on my sword and admit my failure now – I haven’t managed to finish painting them. My excuse is that I am moving house and will catch up in January but we’ll see if the team lets me get away with that.
The keen eyed will realise I’ve constructed the Heavy Weapons Squad not the Command Squad I was going. I just forgot but also this was a chance to move to making this army a 40k army. I’ve mentioned some other ways to use our troops but now we have a unique to 40k unit. A Heavy Weapons Squad can use Heavy Bolters, Lascannons, Autocannons, Missile Launchers and the most prosaic, Mortars.
Everything else is line of sight and these guys are very weak (2 wounds per team) so even the lightest of return fire will kill them. But with Mortars they have a 48¨range indirect fire weapon. They can camp in cover in your backfield and harry anything sitting in cover on the other side of the board. They are really good into any T3 troops (Chaos Cultists for example). Mortars are cheap and, for me, a quintessential infantry weapon that really plays into the normal human origins of Guard, even traitors.
Next month Í’ll finally do the command square, plasma weapons with my limited palette might be fun. I’ll go into more detail about the painting and why I’ve used such a basic style.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+$6.99
$6.99
November Budget
+$75.00
$81.99
Heavy Weapons Squad
-$52.00
$30.01
Patrick
BUDGET – United States – $35 for December
There are two things that I love: growing communities and giant robots. In the case of Adeptus Titanicus I get to have both.
Adeptus Titanicus has seen a surge in popularity in my area, partially due to months of pushing by a very dedicated and vocal community member (shout out to Kyle). I want to take part in this growth, because the best way to enjoy a game is to make sure you have lots of people to play with.
I am going to build this list slowly. I know ultimately that I want four Warhound Titans, and Warbringer Titan, and three Cerastus Knights, but several of the people in my area that already have armies have more than enough models to loan for games, so there is no real pressure to make sure I have a full army quickly.
Instead, I am going to focus on building my models, and making sure I can paint them to the best of my ability. There are a few pieces that I will pick up pretty quickly to get started:
1) Models! Specifically I will pick up a box of Cerastus Knights. These guys are great for their points cost, and I usually like to fit two into my list-building just to have some small maneuverable units to be where I need them.
2) Paint! Since I am painting Legio Crucius, I will need four primary colors to get started: Silver, Brass, White, Black. If I’m feeling sassy I can add in red for things like eye lenses and detail.
For metal paint, I highly recommend using Vallejo Metal Color. I bought mine in a nifty set that came pre-selected for paiting model airplane engines, and it was a good price for four bottles of quality paint. I have found these have great coverage, even on a single coat, and tend to disperse the metal flakes very evenly.
For non-metallic paint, I feel like I can’t make a recommendation without starting a fight. Everyone has an opinion on what paints are the best, and everyone has their reasons for liking what they like. Personally, I float between Citidel and Vallejo paints, and which one I prefer for each color is largely dependent on the color, itself. For blacks and whites I prefer Vallejo, since they tend to have abetter consistency and les glossiness than Citidel’s paints, and for the base red I will also go with Vallejo, although for dark, rich reds Khorne Red or Flesh Tearers Red Contrast are both excellent. For base coats, then, I will buy 3 colors: – Vallejo Model Color Dark Grey for my blacks – Vallejo Game Color Ghost Grey for my whites, and – Vallejo Game Color Scarlett Red
The store where I bought these generally sells them for $3.30 per bottle, leaving me some room for a few brushes. I personally love Sable hair brushes, but they can be quite expensive, depending on the brand. With my remaining funds for December, I am going to head to Rosemary and Co to pick up a few brushes. Rosemary brushes can be pretty closely compared to Artis Opus brushes, but are significantly more affordable (but they cannot currently ship Kolinsky Sable to the US due to trade restrictions). What I ultimately want is a decent sable brush for base coats with acrylic paints, and then a couple of cheap brushes for metallics.
A Series 99 Number 1 brush from Rosemary and Co will allow me to have a lot of control over my base paints, while a series 302 Number 4 flat will allow good coverage for large panels. For metallics, I will buy another Series 302 Number 4, along with a Series 301 Number 2 for detailed metallic work. These will allow me to keep my metallic and non-metallic brushes separate, and while it may be cheaper per brush to go to my local art supply store and buy a big bag of cheap synthetics, I find that working with limited , high-quality tools will make painting a much more pleasant experience.
At this point I just need to sit back and wait for delivery! Maybe next month will just be a painting update, while I save a little extra to spend on my first titan.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+$53.82
$53.82
December Budget
+$35.00
$88.82
Cerastus Knights (15% off)
-$29.75
$59.07
Vallejo Metal Color Paints
-$31.45
$27.62
Vallejo Base Paints
-$9.90
$17.72
Brushes
-$12.87
$4.85
Dave
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for December
It’s the best time of the year to be an Ogor, so I hope you all got some feasting done. Due to all this feasting and visiting Mawtribes, sadly I didn’t get as much done as I had hoped. I purchased another nine Gluttons second hand though, at £9 for three this month. A total of £27, biting into my surplus a little but giving me two full units. I finished three of these fine fellows and they join their friends in my first finished unit (though a banner wouldn’t go amiss).
I plan to finish the remaining six in January and think about picking up a character. Though I’m unsure which one to plump for, let me know if you have any thoughts as I’m torn between a Tyrant and a Butcher.
Happy New Year from the Hamfist Warglutt to yours, may all your enemies taste delicious.
This month I need to get assembling and the best way to do this is to get the right tools; so I’ve picked up clippers, knife and plastic glue. You can grab whatever is near or frequent your FLGS. Just remember that Games Workshop items for these hobby essentials are very expensive so it doesn’t hurt to buy something outside the GW-Fold.
In other news, Games Workshop announced new Cadians, so the start collecting box I picked up in October is no longer available – not helpful! However, I’m sure they’ll be a replacement or alternative soon.
Thanks G-Dubs… great timing!
In order to get everything ready to add paint in December, I’ve also picked up some TT combat black primer. This is for the vehicles which will primarily red with white. I need to save a little more money for the white undercoat for my Guard. I’ll have to see how they look though to ensure it’s a similar scheme. In December I’ll even start painting the little devils!
Peter
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for November
I was pleased with the previous post, although I had only purchased one model, I felt I was in a great position going forwards as I had a lot of the paints, tools, glue and even a couple of brushes to crack on with anything I bought from that point onwards.
So as I’m collecting a Dwarf Fantasy army for Old World my next step was to think about building up the core of the force with the standard troops – Dwarf Warriors. The only issue being that Games Workshop hasn’t sold these for a number of years now. Granted I could kit bash these from perhaps a Hammerers and an Ironbreakers set but that would prove to be expensive for what I wanted to do, and after all we are on a tight budget here! Instead I decided to visit Etsy and see what I could find on there. It didn’t disappoint. There are so many talented sculptors nowadays that you can find models that even rival Games Workshops offerings in the level of detail.
As such I decided to order 20 Dwarf Warriors designed by Highlands Miniatures and sold by Print3DMiniaturesUK. These models look great and absolutely fit with the Games Workshop aesthetic.
I even mentioned to the seller that I was purchasing these for an article I was writing and he kindly gave me a summary of why he thinks 3D printing is the future of wargaming:
3D printing is definitely a good approach to a budget collection, especially from a perspective of being a hobbyist printer with the ability to make your own models at will. The in-built issue with the pricing commercially is the labour cost to ensure the models are properly cleaned and processed ready for that awesome paintjob every time.
Print3D Miniatures really is trying to bridge that gap by offering models as cheap as possible. By offering units in much better quantities than most others in the market we are able to bring the individual model cost down significantly which means that people looking to buy entire armies or collections aren’t breaking the bank doing so and at the same time offering unparalleled model quality & customer service. – Andrew Print3D Miniatures UK
The only problem was the delivery, which isn’t the seller’s fault! I ordered these models at the end of October and a few days later we were unfortunate enough to suffer from a Postal strike in the UK. After two weeks the models still hadn’t arrived, so I contacted the seller. He kindly chased the package up but also couldn’t get any response from Royal Mail; in the end he sent out the models again at his own expense!
Also, a tad unfortunate, the plastic glue I purchased won’t cut it when working with resin miniatures. Instead, I would need to purchase some good old fashioned super glue. I don’t have a massive budget left so I turned to Amazon to see what they could offer me. In the end I managed to pick up some cheap Loctite Precision glue for only £2.80.
This would do temporarily until I could upgrade to some better-quality glue (yes, there is a difference in quality).
Due to the lateness of the miniatures reaching me I was unable to get any painting done this month. However, I’ll be off on a flyer next month. Next up I need to get some classy square bases for my minis as well as another unit. But what should I buy?
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+£5.00
£5.00
Nov Budget
+25.00
£30,00
20x Dwarf Warriors
-£25.00
£5.00
Super Glue
-£2.80
£2.20
Brett
BUDGET – Australia – $75 for November
This month we are going to pick up another kit to build the second section and some shade to give a bit more life to our men. I’ve built the section with both the Grenade Launcher and Flamer but for guard the flamer isn’t ideal. If I run these in a Chaos Space Marine army the flamer gets D6+2 shots and might be worth it. I’ll add a Plasma and melta from the Command Squad later.
This month our purchases are another Cadian Shock Troops box and Agrax Earth Shade. The shades add depth to the models, I usually dilute them 50/50 with water and use the Agrax on everything that isn’t metal. Nuln goes on the metal (next time).
That totals $69.92, it was important to get 2 squads and 20 troops. 20 troops are enough to start using them in a couple of games, Kill Team 2.0 from Games Workshop and One Page Rules Grimdark Future.
In Kill Team, the troops I’ve built so far can form the Compendium Imperial Guard Team (with 2 teams of 7). Unfortunately we don’t have all of the heavy/special weapon options in our squads so we have to use a lot of Troopers. But you can form 2 Fire Teams and a legal 14 man Kill Team like so: –
Kill Team – Imp Guard
Fire Team 1
Fire Team 2
Guardsman Sergeant (Chainsword, Laspistol)
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Comms
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Gunner (Bayonet, Flamer)
Guardsman Gunner (Bayonet, Launcher)
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
Guardsman Trooper
It won’t be the most competitive team but it’s a start and you can see if you like the smaller skirmish game.
One Page Rules is developed by fans as a quick, simple wargame . There are full rule books both for the rules and factions available online for free. Our Traitor Guard can play as Rebels. Typically games use troops only and 30 to 40 models, as well as being simplified they are quick. It’s still playable with only 20 models as well. If you have a family member or friends with some models from pretty much any system this is a good way to get into wargaming. Kids pick it up quickly and imbibing refreshing beverages doesn’t really affect the game (too much).
At the end of this month we’ve got the troops we need for our 500pt list, I’ll move onto the Command Squad next month unless you’d prefer some armour. Let me know in the comments.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+$0.91
$0.91
November Budget
+$75.00
$75.91
Cadian Shock Troops
-$60.83
$15.07
Agrax Earthshade
-$9.09
$5.98
Patrick
BUDGET – United States – $35 for November
There’s no great way of putting this, but sometimes you screw up. Mistakes are great, though! You just need to be sure to identify them early.
In this particular instance, I played a game with some borrowed Harlequins and proxies, and found that I didn’t like the play-style. Coming from Idoneth Deepkin in AoS, I assumed that the fast and aggressive play-style would work, but I found the number of options for stratagems and secondaries to be overwhelming.
So this month? I’m not spending anything. I’m going to take the month to reassess what I want to play, and what games are growing in my community. Maybe I take the time to start a new AoS army, maybe I buy an airbrush (at our budget I’m probably not buying an airbrush), or maybe I start building models for a game I haven’t played before. December may also be a slow month, just because of the holidays, but we’ll see what happens.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+$18.82
$18.82
November Budget
+$35.00
$53.82
Dave
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £25 for November
This month would mean a bit of consolidation for me as I wanted to pick up everything else I needed to paint and base the army. That meant no models this month (boo) but free rein in the coming months to bargain hunt and go mad.
This put me at £26.84 and over my £25 but I still had £3.39 left from last month and squeaked through! Phew!
You don’t have to buy all your basing materials though, I’ve used tea leaves and dried out twigs on bases too and been really happy with them.
I finished up my first models for the army and I’m very pleased with them, they’re going to have plenty of friends soon as well as I can focus on building up my army. The Warglutt of the Hamfist Mawtribe will be unstoppable!
I hear the cry of male hobbyists the world over – ‘I’m disappointed in the size of my tower’, well, if your erections just aren’t quite piercing the clouds, fear not as I have a product review for you.
I recently picked up the Fortified Tower from Croatia based Tabletop World and tried it out, so you can see if it meets your needs.
This is a five piece resin kit (three of the pieces being the flag, pole and base). The main tower consists of just two pieces, with a little bit of internal detail which might be nice for D&D etc but not enough to do too much with as you only have that level plus the roof.
This kit can also be incorporated into Tabletop Worlds Town Walls kits, these look pretty interesting but for my purposes I only wanted the singular tower.
Tabletop World states that the resin comes pre-cleaned but I didn’t want to risk it and gave the beast a good wash and brush up with some washing up liquid. I was pleased and surprised to find no bubbles or problems with the product to repair, given the material (!), I don’t know if this is their usual quality but I was very pleased. The irregular stone effect of the sculpt looks great and I think you could really put as much or as little effort as you wanted into painting this and it will reward you.
I #slapchopped up the tower very simply and it took the paint very well. I then added some spots of Dirty Down moss on the odd ledge here and there.
The kit is a bit pricey at €65, or £54.90 from Element Games. This beast is absolutely rock solid though and feels like it will last as long as if it really were made of stone. Terrain always is a bit of an investment and I can use this for the Warhammer Fantasy Watchtower scenario objective, in Age of Sigmar or even in 40k for a feudal world.
I’ve added a few pics, with a little green friend, so you can see the scale and how mine turned out
All in all, I’m a fan and might pick some more up…. I’ll let you know!
Welcome to the first Tale of Wargamers article on Woehammer! Back in the 90’s these were my favourite article to read in the White Dwarf and I wanted to recreate them, but with a twist!
For a start, we’re all beginning as if we are complete novices to wargaming. We’re limiting ourselves to only £25 a month and we’re assuming we have none of the paints or tools required to begin! We had £50 for our first article (£25 from both September and October).
Our budget has to do a lot of work, as it also has to cover our supplies!
So if you’re new to the hobby or even just an Old Guard starting a new army why don’t you join in and let us know what you bought with your budget and any tips you may have in the comments below.
If you’re not UK based then use the below as a guide for your monthly budget:
Euro – €35 US Dollar – $35 Australian Dollar – $75
The above has been calculated using a box of Cadian Infantry as the marker:
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £50 for September & October
When Peter suggested Tale of Wargamers for the club I jumped at the chance. Like Peter, I think these articles are one of the best ever to appear in White Dwarf (and they keep coming back so someone must agree with us).
I had a lot of ideas, but I’ve been meaning to re-alight my love of the forces of the Imperial Guard – Astra Militarum.
Our first month is September, and then straight in October so we have £50 to spend, but the rules have thrown another spanner into the works… we have to assume that we have no hobby supplies… not easy!
First purchase: Astra Militarum Start Collecting Set:
From Games Workshop
This is a great box, packed with value and with an RRP of £57.50; I can get it for below £50! Let’s say a discount of 15%, so £48.88
What’s Next: well, I can’t actually do anything in October, but this purchase will help me get a flying start in November as I’ll be able to buy the hobby products I need and not need to go back and get toys in a couple of months.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Sep & Oct Budget
+£50.00
£0.00
Start Collecting Set
-£48.88
£1.12
Peter
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £50 for September & October
I’ve decided on a slightly different approach to Declan.
For a start I’m going to build up a Warhammer Fantasy Dwarf army in readiness for the forthcoming Old World release by Games Workshop. While that be maybe more than 12+ months away, I can still use the army against Dave in our Warhammer Fantasy 8th edition battles.
I’m a painter (albeit not a great one) before a gamer, so I’ve decided to get a lot of the supplies a new wargamer would need before beginning, as well as a single model to paint up.
My first stop was our friends at SCN Hobby World. These guys are great, and as I’m signed up to their mailing list I benefit from 25% off GW prices!
As Declan mentioned we had £50 in total to spend, so my first £25 went on the excellent paint and tool kit from Games Workshop. I managed to get this for just £20.63 from SCN Hobby World.
But that was all I bought in September. Although that did give me a decent supply of paints (13 in total), a brush, a clipper (must have in my opinion) and a mouldline remover.
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carry Over
£0.00
£0.00
September Budget
+£25.00
£25.00
Paint and Tool Set
-£20.63
£4.37
That left me £29.37 for October, and I visited SCN once more, this time for some plastic glue, a large bash brush, some citadel paint (Castellan Green) and a Runelord! All of this came to £24.37 and leaves me exactly £30 for November!
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carry Over
+£4.37
£4.37
October Budget
+£25.00
£29.37
Plastic Glue
-£3.79
£25.58
L Base Brush
-£4.44
£21.14
Castellan Green
-£2.36
£18.78
Runelord
-£13.78
£5.00
With that I had all the essentials I needed to get started and a model to put some paint on!
My purchases were fairly simple, although the original paint set came with a lot of tools, it didn’t include plastic glue. I also realised I had no spray can to undercoat my miniature and so bought a large base brush so that I could do this by hand with Abaddon Black temporarily. I also decided to buy some Castellan Green as I knew the colour palette for the Dwarf army would be Green and White/Cream. The green that came with the paint set was too bright so I decided to pick up the Castellan instead. I also decided a Runelord would be a nice little character model to start with and to test out the scheme.
The purchases arrived and I got painting …
I have most of the colours to get the base coats down as well as a shade with Agrax Earthshade. He was base coated with Abaddon Black using the large base brush and then his armour was painted with Castellan Green. His cloak was painted with Corax White as was the rune being held by the tongues. The rune and flames were painted gradually blending from white to yellow to red and finally to black.
I could have finished the model completely using the paints on hand. If you want to save money, you can use the white and black to lighten the paint colours to create your highlights and shades. I chose not to do this as it can be hard replicating the colours across on an entire army and remembering the mix can be hard. Easier for me to use the set colours that GW and other suppliers provide.
My tip for this month is to find an old tub or biscuit tin and use it to store your spare pieces of models you get. These become a great source for future conversions (using bits from different kits to make unique or stand out models).
it doesn’t look much now, but before long you’ll have a metric tonne of these pieces stored away
Brett
BUDGET – Australia – $150 for September & October
Like Peter I came into the hobby because I like painting first but then I found competitive play. I like multiple systems including Saga (fantastic historical with small bands) or Bolt Action (WWII). My first thought was to pick up a Saga warband and but that might be a bit short.
I’m Australian and we pay a bit of a tax for Games Workshop products so I have a $75 limit. That’s enough to pick up an entire army in Saga (but not all of the rules – they are online). Instead I too have gone with Imperial Guard, as older models they are a bit cheaper. If you are on a budget, factions with older models like Drukhari, Guard, Skaven, S2D, and Seraphon are a bit cheaper.
Keeping my advice in mind I’ve also gone with Guard, as a Chaos player though this will be Traitor Guard. I’ll have to save up to afford Blooded though so I’ve headed to one of our discount retailers (Gap Games in Brisbane) to order Cadian Shock Troops
With my remaining $15 dollars I’ve also picked up some prime from Bunnings:
The paint delivery is pretty quick so make sure you move the bottle across the model but it’s 20% of the price of Chaos Black.
That leaves me with about $10 to buy some brushes and look at paints. I will be looking to use “Slapchop” and probably Army Painter speed paints because they are a little cheaper. But for now I’m off to research traitor guard colour schemes.
Item
Cost
Remaining
September Budget
+$75.00
$75.00
Cadian Shock Troops
-$60.83
$14.17
Black Spray
-$5.20
$8.97
For October I’m starting with a balance of $83.97 and that should be enough to get me the hobby supplies I need. The first order of business is – decide on a colour scheme. In the end I’m going to follow a grey and black style based on some ideas from Midwinter Mini’s (his Blackstone Fortress series). This means I’ve purchased Grey instead of Black Spray for the same price. Plan in hand it’s off to the hobby store which looked a little like this
Item
Cost
Remaining
Carried Forward
+$8.97
$8.97
October Budget
+$75.00
$83.97
Citadel: STC S Base Brush
-$8.69
$75.28
Tamiya Extra Thin Cement – 40ml
-$8.54
$66.74
Vallejo T11001 Tools 9pc Plastic Modelling Tool set
-$25.64
$41.10
Citadel Base: Leadbelcher
-$5.06
$36.04
Vallejo 72051 Game Color; Black 17ml
-$4.74
$31.30
Vallejo 70951 Model Color; White 17ml
-$4.74
$26.56
Speedpaint; Gravelord Grey
-$8.55
$18.01
Speedpaint; Hardened Leather
-$8.55
$9.46
Speedpaint; Crusader Skin
-$8.55
$0.91
Leaving us with a total of $0.91. I picked up a hobby set with both nippers and a knife for cleaning up the pieces as we clip them. The bonus is that this set also has a cutting mat and file as well as being portable. Like everyone else I recommend plastic cement, Tamiya’s Extra Thin is almost the gold standard and is cheaper than GW’s glue. It’s also a compatible base to make sprue goo (for a future article).
Nippers and knife in hand it doesn’t take long to assemble the squad: –
Unfortunately the box I’m using only provides the heavy flamer and Grenade launcher. I’ve only included the Grenade launcher although you can have one heavy and one special gunner in each squad. Pretty easy to assemble but you need to be a little bit careful to line up the legs with weapon options that make sense. I gave them a quick prime and then set to painting my first model. Because I am building these as traitor guards I’ve also gone through and carefully removed all of the aquilla’s. Each model has 3.
With a limited palette I’ve used the prime as base of the uniform. After than I’ve painted the base, boots, helmet and the cap of the water bottle black. With a grey prime there are some issues with speedpaints becoming darker but that can work for you. In this case I’ve used Hardened Leather on all of the attachments on the belt (scabbard, bottle carrier and pouches, black on the grenade). Finally for the skin I’ve used a light coat of white to lighten the primer and then crusader skin to give colour and texture.
I’ll add a little bit more colour next week (when I can afford it). I don’t use washes a lot on my models but speedpaint and the black can both be a little too satin. I’ve used a very light application of white for some highlights on the uniform, I’d recommend dry brushing to make it easier, before finishing with a 1:3 mix of black and water to wash the model. I’d prefer Agrax Earthshade and will wait to do the rest when I have the budget to buy it.
Next month I’ll start the next squad and talk about some ways to play with the models before you have a full 500 points.
Patrick
BUDGET – United States – $70 for September & October
I’ve been interested in Harlequins for a long time. GW makes some absolutely beautiful models, and the limited range makes list building simple, but challenging. On top of that, all of the minis can be bought directly from GW within the monthly budget restrictions of this series, which makes it easy to balance month-by-month when to buy models and when to buy paint and supplies.
So the first step is to plan your army. When I’m looking to build my Harlequins, I want to look at the direction of my purchases based in 500pt increments. 500pts is the minimum sized game you can expect to see outside of a skirmish game, like Kill Team. These small games are the best starting point, and you should be able to find more experienced players in your area that are willing to run these tiny games with you.
I don’t recommend you buy the army’s codex just yet. The rules for everything can be found online, but due to potential copyright issues I won’t explicitly state where they are available. Use online resources to determine points costs and use that first 500pt list to plan your first purchases. My 500 point army looks like this:
Twilight Saedath
Shadowseer
Troupe Master
10 Troupes
1 Starweaver
This gives me an excellent core to my army. The Troupes are mandatory for the army, and the Shadowseer provides excellent buffs and availability to psychic powers. The Troupe Master gives me a solid melee-centered warlord, and the starweaver makes sure that one of my Troupes squads makes it into melee in one piece.
For my first purchase (note that we are allowed $70 USD for the first article) is going to be focused on getting the bare core of this army assembled. The core in question to going to be the Troupe Master and 5 Troupes. We are going to get them built and primed, but I’ll hold off on painting until I have a usable 500pt force.
For my first purchase, I’m going to pick up the cheapest Patrol detachment that GW makes – a Harlequin Troupe. The box contains 6 minis – 1 of which can be built as a Troupe Master, giving me immediate access to my required HQ and Troops slot for my Patrol. This box retails at $42, but I will be buying at a 15% discount. This is the maximum discount that GW will allow a retailer to advertise, and most online retailers have this discount factored into their price. If possible, buy from your local store, but I will have enough money at the end of the article to make up the difference, if you can’t get that discount.
Now that you have a couple of sprues, you are going to need some way of getting all of the pieces removed, trimmed, and glued together. For removal and trimming I recommend using a simple pair of toenail clippers (clean them first!) and a pocket knife. Technically any piece of relatively sharp metal can be used to shave mold lines, but be sure that whatever you use can be used safely.
For glue I recommend using plastic glue, rather than super glue. By volume the cheapest plastic glue that you can buy is Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner. The airbrush cleaner is chemically identical to their plastic glue, is half the price of their plastic glue, and comes in a bottle with nearly 4 times the volume. It will get a little pricey for the first purchase, but this glue will hold you over for the entirety of this Harlequin army (all the way to 2000pts), as well as my Horus Heresy and Age of Sigmar armies. I’ve never found Tamiya in a local shop, but it can be found on MegaHobby.com for $10.50. The downside to this glue is that it doesn’t come with a convenient applicator, like their plastic glue, so I recommend having some cotton swabs on hand for application, just be careful about your glue getting on the parts of your mini you don’t want melted.
So at this point I have 6 minis that are assembled and on their bases. To avoid arriving to a game with a gray tide, I’m going to go ahead and prime my minis at this stage. I buying a rattle can of flat gray primer. I find mid-tone grays to be a great starting point for all of my color schemes, assuming I’m not using a lot of contract paints. To save cost, I’m leaving the game store and walking down the street to my hardware store, where I can get a rattle can of Rust-oleum 249088 Flat Grey Spray Primer for $4.98.
At this point I have 6 primed minis, usable for Kill Team but not quite a large enough force for 40k. Here’s what I’ve spent, and what I have left over to buy paint in November:
Item
Cost
Remaining
Sep & Oct Budget
+$70.00
$70.00
Harlequin Troupe
-$35.70
$34.3
Tamiya Airbrush Cleaner
-$10.50
$23.80
Ristoleum Grey Primer
-$4.98
$18.82
Dave
BUDGET – United Kingdom – £50 for September & October
I was thrilled to be invited to participate in the Tale and thought long and hard about what I wanted to do. I eventually settled on an Age of Sigmar army and then Ogor Mawtribes. I knew that the new Ogor book was coming soon and it looks like most of the range is still intact. The majority of the Ogor sculpts are quite old but have aged like fine wine. This means that, even with a modest budget, it’s easy to pick up some great models.
I started off on my journey with a pack of brushes from The Works for £6, this gave me 16 assorted brushes. Enough to see me through my project if I look after them.
Next, I needed my paints. I found an army painter starter set for £20.83 on Amazon but missed out as the offer was discontinued before I could pick it up!
After hunting around, I decided to get my paints from Element games, they gave a good discount on the paint ranges and also let me save ‘crystals’ which I might use for a discount in future months,
I picked up the elf paint set, a pot of black and a pot of old gold from Vallejo, a pot of inktense wood from scale 75 and a pot of Reikland flesh shade from citadel. This cost me £31.61 but will stand me in great stead going forward.
Now, for some Ogors to paint! A lot of the crew have been hunting for cheap clippers and glue but in a big brain move I found three ready built and unpainted Gluttons from Troll Trader for £9. Now, this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and if you love building and customisation then it won’t be yours. My time is limited though and so is the budget…..
This put me at £46.61 for the month and it was time to start painting.
I slopped on my black and then dry brushed with off white to get started. I then used the inktense wood on all the wood items and two coats of Reikland flesh shade on all the skin. Metals were nice and simple, just a matter of choosing silver or gold. Then everyone got some nice jazzing coloured pants.
I am not a fan of the silver from the Vallejo set but everything else was great and I’d recommend it overall.
Next month I will be picking up another three gluttons, some basing materials and a few more paints. This will include a black spray as undercoating with a brush…… sucks.
The following month I hope will be models only and the army will really grow apace. I already have a few events planned for my new army, including the Woehammer Tournament next year.
My challenge at the moment is that, awaiting the new book, I really can’t plan my army. I’m guessing I can’t go wrong with a few battleline though.
Those of you who are familiar with our YouTube channel may remember that I started a Grudge ringer army some time ago. This was meant as an homage to my favourite video game of the 90’s ‘Shadow of the Horned Rat‘.
I’d already painted up Commander Bernhardt back in 2020 as well as some Grudgebringer cavalry and infantry.
I wanted to get Allor the wizard involved in the army as well. For those of you not familiar with the game, here’s his unit card:
Allor
There wasn’t a suitable Warhammer model available so I decided to create the miniature in HeroForge. It’s a great website that you can spend hours on creating your ideal mini! I ordered mine some time ago and have only just got around to painting him after deciding to take a break from painting Kruleboyz.
Allor
I have tried a little OSL but I don’t think I’ve pulled it off. More practice needed.
About a month ago, the legend that is Dave invited me to play a few games of Warhammer Fantasy with him in the coming year. I jumped at the opportunity, and what better army to play with than my old Dwarfs!
I’ve always had a soft spot for these boys ever since I started in Warhammer way back in 93′.
This would also be the perfect opportunity for me to start rebasing them back on to their proper SQUARE bases as is only right! It also means that by the time Old World gets released I may have a fully painted and functional army from the off!
We’re starting out in Fantasy with the Grudge of Drong as Dave has previously mentioned, and for the first battle in the series I need to muster a small force of 1,500 points.
The first battle takes place in Grudge Pass as an Elven force blocks the road to advancing Dwarfs looking to topple Queen Helga from her throne whom the Elves have allied themselves with.
In this case, Dave is replacing the Elves and using his old Empire army. However, I will be using the Dwarfs. The suggested order of battle is below, but this is a 5th edition campaign box and we’re going be playing with 8th edition rules so I will need to adjust this slightly.
We’re going to be using 8th Edition rules, so my force will look something like this:
Dwarf Lord
Master Engineer
Runesmith
Battle Standard Bearer
15 Warriors
10 Warriors
10 Longbeards
10 Thunderers
10 Ironbreakers
10 Miners
10 Miners
This is by no means a competitive army , but then its not meant to be as this is a narrative campaign and we’re playing to act a story out rather than attempting to table our opponent.
Some of these models are already painted, they just need rebasing!
I’ve still a fair whack to get through as well as rebasing the above models!
