Born in Hertfordshire, Thorpe joined Games Workshop in 1993. Where he stayed for fourteen years, holding various positions, but being most known as a games developer, background designer and author of background fiction. He left Games Workshop in 2008 to concentrate on being a full-time author and has produced many novels and stories for the Black Library.
Gav Thorpe’s most famous work
Gav Thorpe worked in almost all aspects of Games Workshop, making his way up from assistant games developer to being placed in charge of the Warhammer Fantasy games system. He also contributed to the development and design of several editions of Warhammer 40,000, as well as writing articles for White Dwarf magazine and being the originator and lead developer of the Inquisitor games system. One of his last positions before leaving Games Workshop was an oversight role over all Games Workshop background and IP. His influence on the development of the Warhammer 40,000 background continues at present with the publication of his work for the Black Library.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
So progress has been pretty slow this past week, with the Lieutenant still not finished…..
And the Necron Warriors needing some further paints and basing before I can call them done…….
To top it off we have three more minis to add to this back log now in the form of three Assault Intercessors. We also picked up some Macragge Blue paint in this issue. I can’t express enough what good value for money these magazines work out at. For £8 you’re getting three miniatures and a paint!
The Intercessors
On top of that, in this issue the magazine tells us all about Assault Intercessors and gives us more information on the Imperium and its two parts Nihilus and Sanctus. You’re given another battle card for the Assault Intercessors which I always enjoy as these give your miniatures some fluff, which even as seasoned gamers you can always enjoy and use on other miniatures if you wish.
The fluff generator
There is also a short story this week called The Assault on Drakthyr, which introduces the Assault Intercessors and their battle against the Necrons.
You’re given your first painting guide for the Intercessors and Lieutenant this week if you’re looking to paint them in Ultramarine colours. The magazine teaches about painting in thin coats and building up a good solid colour (ala Duncan Rhodes). Unfortunately for those of us not collecting these miniatures as Ultramarines the Assault Intercessors do come with moulded Ultramarine Chapter symbols on their pauldrons. However, it’s not too much work to scrape these of and then file the paldron smooth once more.
Next week, more Necrons in the form of three Skorpekh Destroyers, and again coming back to the value of these, I realise these are push fit models but a box of these would set you back £24+ through your preferred retailer and you’re getting these for £8. Bargain!
Chambers is best known for his work for Games Workshop, where he worked from March 1990 to March 2004. He worked extensively on various Warhammer 40,000 rulebooks and sourcebooks, and also authored multiple fiction novels set in the same universe. Chambers was the lead designer on a number of Warhammer 40,000 spin-off games, such as Necromunda (1995) and Battlefleet Gothic (1999), produced by Specialist Games. These games were released at a time of major growth for Games Workshop and were designed with expansions and more miniatures sales in mind.
In 2003, Chambers joined Mongoose Publishing as the lead designer of the company’s development team for the Starship Troopers tabletop miniatures game. Starship Troopers won “Best New Game” in the 2005 Origins Awards.
Chambers was also made the lead story writer for Blizzard Entertainment’s StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty for which he is given much of the credit for completing the project by other members of the company such as Megan Farokhmanesh.
Andy Chambers has also been involved in numerous other projects over the years such as Dust Warfare (2012) releases by Fantasy Flight Games, Dropfleet Commander (2017) by Hawk Wargames and Blood Red Skies (2017) publisher by Warlord Games.
Like Jervis Johnson and Alessio Cavatore, Andy Chambers has been involved in the designing of over 100 rules and accompanying supplements for many publishers including Games Workshop, Warlord Games, Hawk Wargames and Fantasy Flight Games to name but a few.
As well as our painting competition which is open to the public where you can win a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box of your choice, the guys at Woehammer and our generous sponsors SCN Hobby World are holding their own internal painting competition.
A few have already chosen which models they’re going to paint as well…..
Sarah
Sarah has been collecting Orks for some time now but has chosen to do something a little different for the competition.
Howling Griffon Space Marine. With the marine already purchased and undercoated Sarah is well on her way ahead of the 30th November deadline.
Sarah’s painting back catalogue is full of amazing looking Orks.
Ray
As far as I’m aware this will be Rays first miniature, and he’s chosen the new Ork Beastsnagga Warboss. I’m really looking forward to seeing what he comes.up with this for the competition. There’s already been smack talk between himself and Ben as well!
Rhys
Anyone who followed our Tale of Painters on YouTube will know that Rhys has only been painting for about a year and a half now. In that time his abilities have gone from strength to strength…..
Ed
Ed loves Nurgle and Lumineth, but this time round he’s attempting a new model and style completely with a comic book look. Here’s some of Ed’s work….
Ben
After smack talking with Ray, Ben decided to paint a Space Marine captain which he’ll paint in Imperial Fist colours and donate to Dave’s army that he’s creating. Ben is another talented painter with quite the back catalogue…….
Just look at his Bel’akor
Peter (Me!)
For this challenge I’ve chosen to do something a bit different to what I normally would paint. I’m painting Calas Typhon the forgeworld model. This is actually Dave’s model which I’m painting for him (Dave is kindly painting Mephiston for me).
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
I thought I’d share my progress following last week’s article before reviewing the next issue.
I have managed to complete the Royal Warden using a very simple colour scheme which should mean I can get through the Necrons quickly enough.
Eknothet Xopcan, the Gleeful Eradicator and Oppressor of the Weak.
I decided to use the ‘fluff builder’ inside the magazine to give the Royal Warden some personality. Therefore after some dice rolling on the following tables in the image, his name was determined to be Eknothet Xopcan, the Gleeful Eradicator and Oppressor of the Weak. However it appears Eknothet is envious of those who still possess flesh and so collects gruesome trophies from his foes. He also carries his Relic Gauss Blaster Verminscourge into battle at every opportunity.
The fluff builder
The Primaris Lieutenant on the other hand is probably around 80% complete as I’ve found I was missing a couple of key paints. But they’re on order so he should be finished this coming week.
No fluff for this guy yet, however any fluff given to him will be of my own making and not from the magazine, as my Void Dragons are a distinctly Anglo-Saxon vibe to them ,(think Alfred the Great etc).
Issue 2
So on to this week’s issue. You’re given three Necron Warriors and some Runelord Brass paint.
I quickly set about building the Necrons and giving them a few base coats to keep up my progress.
But, again these fellows aren’t quite finished yet.
The magazine this week goes into a little more detail about the Ultramarines and the Szarekhan Dynasty, allowing those newer players to develop their knowledge of the background of 40k and the two factions that they’ll be collecting.
On top of this you’re also given some background into the warzone that the combat is taking place.
You’re also given your first painting instructions if you’re following the magazine. It’s fairly simple this week, but will become more complex as the model collection gets larger and more paints are acquired.
Overall, I’m enjoying this a lot more than I though I would be and it is great value for money compared to buying the models and paints separately.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
The only major miniatures company releasing miniatures for pre-order this weekend is Games Workshop. However, I will keep an eye on the other companies in the upcoming weeks.
The Orks take centre stage this week with some very nice kits being released for the beast snaggas.
This week’s GW releases
Warlord Games have released limited edition miniature, which is available only for this weekend. Make sure to grab it while you can!
Lucky Jack
Para-Bellum miniatures, have a number of pre-orders up which I have failed to cover previously. All of these are for their title game Conquest.
Another company I have previously missed is Reaper Miniatures. There are a couple of upcoming September releases here for their Bones Black range.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
As a massive fan boy of both 40k and Space Marines when I heard about the new Hatchette collection for Space Marines and Necrons I jumped at the chance.
For those who aren’t aware, Games Workshop and Hatchette are working together to allow players to collect, paint and game with Space Marines and Necrons in a weekly magazine. Each week you’re sent a new issue which usually contains 1-3 models and some paint. The issue will give you background on the models you’ve been sent as well as instructions on how to build and paint them.
Issue #1 arrived through my door late last week. This week’s magazine includes two models, a Primaris Lieutenant with Volkite Pistol and a Necron Royal Warden.
No paints this week, but as a subscriber I did receive a pair of clippers, glue and seam remover as a free gift.
The magazine is nicely detailed, with some information about the factions you’re collecting and some ideas for colour schemes aside from the one you see included on the cover.
Your also given a set of six dice and a small game Matt so that you can take part in your first game (the Warden v the Lieutenant).
The gaming mat
Although it’s not the best quality, I did like that the gaming mat has wound tokens and objective markers which can be cut out and used.
After some work I managed to glue both figures together ready for painting (which as they’re push fit, you don’t need to but I would recommend).
I’ve left the back pack of the marine to make it easier to paint.
I won’t be painting my Marines in the colours of the Ultramarines as shown in the magazine but instead will be painting them as my homebrew chapter the Void Dragons.
One of my other Void Dragon Lieutenants
I’ll try and keep you updated with my progress with the magazine and the two armies as and when I can.
But if you’re interested in subscribing, then I would suggest you check out the website here.
The Woeful Brush Painting Competition Sponsored by SCN Hobby World
Closing date for entries 30th November. £1 entry, win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box set!
On our YouTube channel we had a series known as A Tale of Painters. However, since life has got in the way a little recently and my time for filming and editing videos is very limited o thought it would be best to continue the series in the blog.
So I’ve included (most) of the Woehammer team below and what they’ve been working on since our last episode.
40k Ben
Since the last episode, Ben has been busy on a number of projects. But perhaps his most impressive in this time is his Bel’akor. Ben has even done some on source lighting to great effect!
Bel’akor
Ben even had his first few games of Age of Sigmar against AoS Ben and Declan.
40k Ben’s Chaos v AoS Ben’s Seraphon
As well as this Ben set himself the challenge of painting all this:
For September! As you can see he’s already well on target.
Dave
Dave has started a new Ossiarch Bone Repears army, and has given himself a deadline of 3rd October to have them done. His entire army is around 50 models and so far he’s painted one……
AoS Ben
As always Ben has been extremely busy, as well as finishing his Seraphon army and attending a few tournaments he’s now decided to build another Kharadron Overlord army, the Ghostlords 2.0!
Ben’s Seraphon army
All of his models are always painted to a very high standard and his basing is, in my opinion world class.
Ben recently completed Spiderman using just contrast paints:
Friendly neighborhood Spiderman
Ben also painted the Kruleboy half of the Dominion boxed set:
Ben’s Kruleboyz
Declan
Declan has been busy painting some more units for his Goblin Warmaster army:
Warmaster Goblin Wolf Riders
He’s also recently gotten into Kill Team and has painted up some scenery for his games.
Liam
Liam hasn’t had as much time as he would like to paint. But saying that he’s now down to fifteen models in his pile of shame. He did manage to paint Ghazghkull:
Paul
As always Paul has probably painted around 15 armies in the time since our last episode.
Paul has recently painted a lot of stormcast in order to play Path to Glory in his local gaming club.
Some of Paul’s Stormcast
He’s also been cracking on with his historicals backlog…..
Sexy Saxons
Sarah
Our plastic crack dealer from SCN Hobby World has been continuing her amazing work on her Orks. With an amazingly grubby looking dreadnought.
Green is Mean…
Ed
Ed has been cracking on with his Lumineth to make sure that they’re ready for his first tournament.
Ed was so keen on getting these ready he even had a roadmap for their painting schedule..
As you can see his models are coming on nicely…..
Ed’s Kangaroos
Guests
Jack
This time around we have a guest on our episode. Jack has submitted his Trogg via email to thewoehammer@gmail.com.
The skin on this Troggoth is awesome and you can really get a sense of the icy effect that Jack was after. I’d love to see an entire army of these boys.
If you’d like to submit models for us to look at and include then please either email us at thewoehammer@gmail.comor use #woehammer on Twitter or Instagram.
Don’t forget that we’re doing our first painting competition sponsored by SCN Hobby World where you can win your choice of a Start Collecting or Combat Patrol box for painting any single miniature on a 50mm base. For details see our post on the competition here.
To follow any of the guys above on social media simply click the links below.
Welcome to Woehammer – have you noticed the lovely feeling of no adverts (ads), no pop-ups and no auto-playing videos? Well, that’s the norm here at Woehammer.
But this is only possible because of our wonderful Patreons. So, some articles over 1 year old will now display our Patreon request at the top of the article… like this one! Don’t worry, we are not adding ads – but if you can afford to donate to the site, we would definitely appreciate it.Membership is available from just £1/month (plus taxes!!)
I am fortunate to have met many friends through wargaming and boardgaming, and sometimes these two groups even collide in a gloriously fun way! Kill Team is one of the rulesets that I can play with those more interested in boardgaming, or not interested in buying & painting a 2,000 point army.
So when one of these friends asked if I was playing Kill Team at a holiday we have soon, I immediately said yes… and started thinking about what I could take. I didn’t want to buy new toys… pile of shame is far too large anyway… so I was limited to Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, Orks and Tyranids. Looking at what others were planning on bringing (Tau, Guard or Orks; Sisters of Battle; Iron Warriors; Necrons) I decided to bring something very different – so Tyranids it was.
The Kill Team
Tyranids have a number of options for their Kill Teams consisting of 2 fire teams from: Tyranid Warriors, Genestealers, Tyranid Swarms (Hormagaunt / Termagaunt). I had loads of all these available, but Genestealers looked to be very different from the other armies being taken, so I picked two Genestealer Fire Teams with Rending Claws & Scything Talons.
The first Fire Team, with the Feeder Tendrils being the Genestealer Leader
I grabbed a few models, some new (see above), and some old (see below) to make the individual Fire Teams clearly different. To add a little variety I found a ‘Stealer with Feeder Tendrils… he was different enough to be my Leader.
Needless to say none of the extras that are on the models are included in Kill Team, so it didn’t matter that some of them have mutations on them. Perfect for adding a bit of variety.
2nd Fire Team is more old school!
The second unit was the gorgeous monopose sculpts from the Space Hulk era. I grew up with these guys, so it was great to get them painted.
Painting
I wanted a scheme I could do quickly, and I’d just picked up Talassar Blue (GW Contrast Paint), so I decided to start with this. The ‘Stealer models have lots of detail on them, and the contrast worked wonderfully, giving great coverage over a simple zenithal highlight (Chaos Black & Grey Seer spray paint). It’s such a vibrant colour and may become my favourite contrast paint!
After a quick Teclis Blue drybrush to show some highlights, I checked my colour wheel, and it suggested orange as a contrast colour… perfect! I picked out the teeth, talons and nails and I had the units finished in a little over a day.
Fortunately, I have a bunch of Sector Imperialis bases already painted, so a quick snip of the bases and reglue and the unit was finished.
Hope you like them, and I’ll let you know how I get on later this month!
The Kill Team core book is available from SCN Hobbies in Corby; or – most likely – from your FLGS!
