It's Official! The Legio Custodes are for sale!!!

So, my Legio Custodes has finally made it onto the mighty eBay auction site. While I was assured by friends that selling on eBay was incredibly easy, I must admit for a first timer (and Luddite) like myself, it was nowhere near as intuitive as I had hoped.

The auction can be found here!

Anyway, the auction is running now, and will conclude in ten days, on Sunday October 10, at 11:12 pm for my European bidders, 10:12 pm for my UK bidders, 5:12pm for my East Coast US bidders, and 2:12 pm for my West Coast US bidders.

For more information on the army, and why I'm selling it, check out these posts here and here.

Bid high, and bid often ; )

Cheers

Dave

200 years in the making

Let me just begin by saying "Thank You" to the folks who posted messages of support over the last few days. It is much appreciated. And just to clarify, I'm not worried about receiving comments that provide constructive criticism. Please don't attack those that do.

Anyway, back to some stuff I've been working on over the last week when I was in a bit of a funk. Way back in December and January I painted the unit above (the Coldstream Guards) and the unit below (the 1st Battalion of the King's German Legion). You can read a bit more about these back in this post here.

Since then they've kind of languished on the shelf. I started work on my second unit of KGL, but never really got too far (I think I had 12 of 24 basecoated until last week). So I figured it was time to get them finished. I also had a whole bunch of flags from Rick O'Brien at The Flag Dude that I wanted to finally see in action. So I got busy and finished off the unit below, the 2nd Battalion of the King's German Legion. These models, like their 1st Battalion counterparts, are from the Victrix Limited British Napoleonic Peninsular Flank Company box set. That box comes with 52 models, so one box provided my two 24 model units. Not bad really.

Before Adepticon I was able to get the Royal Artillery Battery finished. You can see them below with their 5.5" howitzer and two 9lb cannon. These models are from Front Rank Miniatures, who have a wide variety of Napoleonic models (and other periods).

As well as wrapping up the 2nd KGL, I decided to finish off my Commander and Sub-Commander. You can see these below. My Commander is on the left. As the group I'm working on this project with are all building armies with units present at the Battle of Salamanca, and I have the (un)enviable position of British commander, I decided my Commander model would be Wellington himself. He is seen here cheering on his troops, while an ADC stands ready with a missive, perhaps from Pakenham of the 3rd Division. These models are from Front Rank.

My Sub-Commander is an infantry Colonel (his redcoat gives him away), probably from the 2nd Regiment of Foot Guards as denoted by his deep blue facings. This Colonel model is from Victrix.

So there you have it. My British Guards Division army for the Lasalle ruleset as it stands at the moment. For standard games I need to add a minimum of one more 36-man unit (which I'm 1/3 of the way through at the moment). For scenarios where I'm attacking I need to also add two more 24-man infantry units. These will be Highlander units, just to add a bit more variety, although I may be sick of painting tartan after the first unit.

Time for a little "housekeeping".

So, I think it's about time to chat about a couple of things that aren't directly related to pictures of cool toy soldiers (but still very much related to this blog). Things I'd like to cover in this post are:

1. Hits to your Hobby Mojo

2. Behavior on the blogs of others

3. What's up with the Legio Custodes?

And you can expect this to be a sort of a "stream of consciousness" kind of post too.

Hits to your Hobby Mojo

So, this blog has been a lot of fun (and a bit of work) to put together over the last 20 months or so. As I'm sure many hobby bloggers can attest, it's a great way to get some feedback on your work, but at the same time it can cut into the precious hobby time that you have, or the feeling that regular updates are important (which they are) can push your "hobby mojo" around like it was the scrawny kid in the school playground. Recently I took steps to revive my "hobby mojo" by no longer taking converting/painting commissions, freeing up valuable time to get back into my own projects. The ideas were starting to flow again, much like the spice from Arakis. Then I got a one-two punch that has rocked me a bit.

First, GW decides to close down the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker and axe all the staff. Now, to be fair, they have been saying it was closing down since February (when they announced the HQ move to Memphis) but it was always presented as a "We'll be moving the Bunker" kind of deal.

Just prior to Games Day, the powers that be let the staff (a great team of guys) know that they hadn't been happy with the handful of sites they'd looked at, so they'd simply be closing the store and jettisoning the staff. There are so many things they'd I'd like to say here that would not be good for me to say, so I'll hold fire. Suffice to say this action has disrupted my "hobby mojo".

Second, I got a pleasantly worded email recently that caused me to think a bit more about my hobby, and what parts of it were important to me, and why. The results of reading that email are evident in a few new disclaimers on my blog and a further disruption to my "hobby mojo".

I have some more projects to show you (some of my final commission pieces to show you), but for a little while you'll be seeing some work on other projects involving other miniatures from other manufacturers. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Behavior on the blogs of others

Just recently I had a reader disagree with me on one of my projects. I think he found it frustrating that it seemed I was willing to let little things slide on some of my work, things he felt it would be easy for me to change. He expressed as much, and we discussed the items.

In my mind, this is perfectly acceptable behavior on a hobby blog that accepts comments from readers. You don't always have to agree, but if you disagree you need to remember two things: be constructive in your criticism (provide an alternative idea or be clear on your concern), and be respectful of their decisions (not every criticism you make will be acted on). These things may seem sensible enough, but sometimes we can lose sight of them in our passion for our hobby. Sometimes we can slip and appear less than respectful.

BUT that does not mean you can abandon civility to ATTACK those that appear to have slipped, particularly on someone else's blog.

I take onboard all constructive criticism. I won't act on it all, but I do try to understand where it is coming from. If someone disagrees with me, that's fine. All I ask is that there's no fighting or name-calling in your comments on this blog. I don't like the idea of censoring people, but I will.

Of course, how you behave on your own blog is completely up to you ; )

What's up with the Legio Custodes?

Well, after those two "downer" topics, I thought I might try to lighten the mood for those still reading his far.

The Legio Custodes army will be going up on eBay next week (Sunday October 3) for a week. I still have a few details to finalize, but I will be posting them all here and asking those of you who are so inclined to spread the word. The more sets of eyes we can get on it will hopefully mean that word reaches someone with deep pockets (and the long arms to reach into them).

If you are unsure of what I am talking about, you can see the army here, and read about the cause here.

Thanks for reading, hopefully more pictures in the next post ; )

Cheers

Dave

For the Wolf Time!

I can't believe it's been a whole week since the last post. Busy times indeed. We're wrapping up another issue of Wargames Illustrated (WI277, the November issue), and there's always the joy of copy editing to do : )

Anyway, here's a quick look at the last Primarch model I completed, the Great Wolf Leman Russ. It took me a while to decide on the pose and parts, but in the end I took a big lead from the fantastic artwork on the cover of the yet-to-be-released "Prospero Burns", due for release in January (I think).

Here are the WIP photos.

And a few painted shots.

I hope you like him.

Cheers

Dave

PS. Tomorrow is the last day of the Glen Burnie Bunker, so I'll be heading there to say my goodbyes and pay my respects. Expect a somewhat maudlin post in the next few days : (

Legio Custodes Army. Lots of Pics!

So I took a few photos over the weekend. Photos of my Legio Custodes army. Tonight I spent a bit of time correcting levels and contrast and montaging a few images, all in preparation for selling off this army.

I originally built this army in 2004, after my Genswick Rifles army got a really good reaction at the Baltimore GT. It took me a while to get all the ideas together, but once I had them together I hunkered down and got to work. Sometimes the conversions worked smoothly and I'd get three or four models done in an evening, sometimes I'd stumble and it'd take a few nights to get one done.

Originally I ran this army as a Space Marine army with two squads of allied Grey Knights. It worked pretty well, a fairly balanced list. It lacks a little on the anti-tank front, but as long as you don't meet a mech-list, you should be ok.

Of course, now Grey Knights can't ally with Space Marines, so I think this army could now work as a Blood Angels list, not the most competitive BA list, but good for friendly games : )

First up, this is the HQ model for the army. I used to use it as a Chaplain (hence the black armor, to avoid confusion), and in the BA list it could be used as a Reclusiarch.

Above is the first "Grey Knight" squad. It's an eight-man squad with two incinerators.

Above is the second "Grey Knight" squad. An eight-man squad with two psycannons. If you went with the BA list idea, these two squads of 16 men could become two squads of Sanguinary Guard (each with an Inferno pistol using the psycannons) plus an Honor Guard (with two flamers) and a Captain. You could do a little shuffling, or use the banners as banners (I never did in the games I played, they were just there for the aesthetic).

And here's a shot of a few of the cloaks. All of the "Grey Knight" models have these custom cloaks.

Above: this is the Terminator squad. At the moment I have two heavy flamers in the mix, but I'll replace one of them with another stormbolter before the army goes up on eBay.

Above are the two tactical squads in the army. The first has a Sergeant with plasma pistol and power fist, plus a plasma gunner. The second has a Sergeant with plasma pistol and power sword, plus a melta gunner. Below you can see a few of the cloaks on the Tactical Marines. All models in these two squads have the cloaks.

Above: My first Custodes Dreadnought is rocking a twin-linked heavy bolter and DCC with heavy flamer. It was built for the 3rd edition SM codex when that was a possible option, then the HB was used as an Assault Cannon when we lost that option in 4th. The torso is based on the torso of Inquisitor Tyrus from GW's 54mm Inquisitor range.

Above is my second Custodes Dreadnought, equipped for long range support with a twin-linked lascannon and missile launcher. The torso was based on the chair of Inquisitor Lord Karamazov from the Witch Hunters range.

These are the two Rhinos (typically used for the Tactical squads): Gladiator and Imperius. They are the MkII Rhinos with Forgeworld armor and side doors. On the Imperius I hinged the left side, rear, and top hatches.

And finally the Land Raider centerpiece. This is the Forgeworld MkIIb Land Raider, built with the Eagle doors, and with a significantly large addition to the top. I wanted to build something special so I added the sarcophagus/shrine of an Imperial Hero. Lots of plasticard and bitz work here.

Anyway, that's the army. I hope you like it.

More details on the auction to come.

Cheers

Dave

More Charity Goodness to come!

So, after having a completely great time working with a team of wonderful bloggers on the Storm Wardens Project, I sat back and thought about some good that my toy soldiers could do closer to home.

Recently two friends (and co-workers) suffered some very tragic occurrences in their lives.

One friend was body surfing and was dumped by a wave. He hit the bottom and broke his neck. Not only was he fortunate enough to not drown, but he was also not permanently paralyzed. He did, however, have to take a chopper ride to shock trauma where he underwent three emergency surgeries to save his life and future mobility. He is currently undergoing the early stages of his long rehabilitation process (and painting some Wood Elves as a dexterity building exercise). The real tragedy here is that he was "in-between" employer-supported insurance programs, and has some pretty big bills to pay.

My other friend was fortunate enough to be with his wife when she gave birth to their first child. Less than a week later, his wife passed away from a pregnancy-related complication that really could never have been spotted. It took the coroner two weeks to determine the cause. That's how obscure and hidden it was. My friend is now back at work and raising his son. As any of us with spouses and kids know, that is really tough - emotionally, physically, and financially.

A bunch of us from the Battlefront office will be engaging in a series of events and activities over the coming year, all based around raising money to help these two guys. Keep an eye out for other things I'll be plugging. Hopefully soon we'll have a schedule of stuff to present to you.

So, where does the Legio Custodes army come in to it? Well, I figured that the least I could do is sell off a couple of armies that I don't really play with anymore. If I was going to do that, I really should sell off a couple of armies that have a pretty high profile in the gaming world.

To that end I'll be selling off:

• my Legio Custodes army (some pics shown here, full coverage in an old US WD)

• my Hive Fleet Kraken Tyranid army (pics of which can be found on pages 216-217 of the Warhammer 40,000 5th Edition Rulebook)

Over the next month I'll be taking plenty of photos of the armies, plugging their sale, and most likely selling them on eBay.

All proceeds will go to these two guys.

Please let your friends know.

More news to come.

Cheers

Dave