My bags are packed, I'm ready to go...

Well, tomorrow I head off to Games Day Chicago with my Empire army in tow. Here are all the oddly-shaped parts of the army tucked away in my nice, new "oddly-shaped parts" box, but more of that later.

If you are going to Games Day Chicago, please make sure you check out our Heroes of Armageddon display and take plenty of photos of the great table and the armies that raised $31,000 for Doctors Without Borders. You'll be able to find it in the Club Tables section!

After that (well, between 1pm and 4pm) head to the Armies On Parade area and vote in the popularity contest. Well, vote for my Empire army in the popularity contest. I'm sure there'll be other armies that are just as good (if not better), but you'll vote for me anyway...right...?

; )

Well, take care. Enjoy the radio silence until next week.

Cheers

Dave

It has been CRAZY around here!!!

Random hair-pulling image stolen from the internets.

I'm very sorry I haven't posted this already, but it has been a busy time these past few days. In addition to several quick work trips to photograph cool gaming tables, co-ordinating the final elements of the Steel Legion Army for the Heroes project, shipping off said army to Chicago for Games Day, trying to wrap up my Empire army for Armies On Parade (pics of the Landship next week methinks), and dealing with a chronically over-heating car in the middle of the worst heatwave in 75 years, my parents are visiting from Australia for two weeks. It has been quite hectic. On to a few housekeeping details:

Heroes of Armageddon

I'll have a couple more posts over the next few weeks, showing off the final models and thanking all the members of the Steel Legion build team properly. But I must thank you, the readers of this blog, for showing the world there can be some serious good done by those who play with little toy soldiers. We raised over $31,000 for Doctors Without Borders, a truly worthy cause. This money came from all over the world, as do the readers of this and other "HoA-associated" blogs. Thank you one and all. There are bound to be some great pics from the display this Saturday at US Games Day. If you are at the show, swing by, say "Hi", and check out the armies in person. They'll be on a custom built table in the Club Tables section.

Armies On Parade

The Landship was completed last night, but I think it might need a finishing touch. The aim will be to paint up a banner for it with some crossed cannons and skulls. Suggestions for a name should be put in the comments. More news on this after the weekend. Oh, and if you are at Games Day, please make sure you vote for my Empire Army in the Armies On Parade popularity contest. With a lot of luck you can help me squeeze through the field into first place. Remember, there's only a trophy for first place.

What's next?

I have a couple of projects to get sorted in August, including a platoon of Tanith, a heavily converted Stormtrooper, and I'm planning on painting up some German Panzergrenadiers for my Flames Of War forces. Lots more to come : )

Have fun, and enjoy your own busy summer/winter!

Cheers

Dave

Last HoA post before the Drawing!

With just about 15 hours remaining to donate money to Doctors Without Borders (via the Heroes of Armageddon Project that is), and only 32 hours until John from Santa Cruz Warhammer and Jawaballs do the live drawing for all the prizes, I figured there was still time to squeeze in a look at the latest WIP photos from Mathieu Fontaine.

His interpretation of Ghazghkull is almost finished, just the face and one or two other bitz to finish off. It should be wrapped up before the drawing and Mathieu will be express shipping it to me on Monday so that I can carry it to Chicago myself.

No doubt there'll be plenty of other posts over the next few weeks, but make sure your browser is pointed towards Jawaballs' blog tomorrow for the live drawing. Things should kick off around 6pm Eastern Summer Time (US), which will be roughly 11pm in the UK, 3pm on the US West Coast, and 8am (on Monday) on the east coast of Australia.

All the best, and thank you all for donating!

Cheers

Dave

The actual "Heroes" of Armageddon

As the countdown timer on the right ticks down towards the time of the drawing for the winners of the four Heroes of Armageddon armies, we continue to have some wonderful images trickle in.

First off, Lord Dante is leading the Blood Angels army (obviously) and has been painted by Slayer Sword winner Thomas Schadle. It's a truly beautiful job. You can see more of Tom's work by following him here on Facebook.

Next up we have Wazdakka Gutsmek, the leader of the Speed Freaks army, converted and painted by John Shaffer. John is not only among the best hobbyists working for Games Workshop, but he's also the nicest guy in wargaming. John has warned us that there'll probably be a few more small touches he'll be adding to this model over the weekend.

Then we come to the biggest "Hero" of all, Ghazghkull Thraka. He must be good as he's the only model to have leant his name to a Citadel paint color ; )

This beast is currently being painted by Mathieu Fontaine. Mathieu has won Golden Demon awards in more than three countries, and is planning on heading to Australia later this year to try to conquer another show. You can see more of his work here.

While not technically a "Hero", this Master of Ordnance is still a brilliant piece of art currently being worked on by *cough* four-time Slayer Sword winner *cough* Chris Borer. You can check out the scratch sculpt here, and see more of Chris' work here.

Finally, the leader for the army I've been coordinating, the "Old Man" himself, Commissar Yarrick. Yarrick is being painted by my friend Kirill Zhilkov (aka The Mad Russian), who has been quite coy about sending me WIP shots. Here are a few photos of the base that Kirill sculpted himself.

To be honest, Kirill is painting Yarrick even as I type, making sure he'll be ready and in with a shot for the 40K Single figure category at Chicago Games Day next weekend.

So there you have it. Four awesome "Heroes" (and one awesome lackey) on their way to Chicago for the festivities there.

In the meantime, please keep an eye on the Heroes of Armageddon blog, and also check out the great Doctors Without Borders post on the Santa Cruz Warhammer blog as a bit of a reminder about why we're all doing this.

Take care, donate your asses off, and be kind to your fellow man.

Cheers

Dave

A Great Table is just as Important

After looking back through my posts about the Storm Wardens last year, I remembered I'd shot a few photos of the army on a gaming table at the Glen Burnie Battle Bunker and posted them for all to see. I figured it wouldn't be too tough to do the same with the Steel Legion army and dragged it to GW White Marsh yesterday to shoot these.

Let me just tell you, the army is HUGE!

After clearing off the terrain and laying down the army, there wasn't really too much room to put any scenery back on the table. I still think it's nice to see all he models "in situ" as it were.

Which brings me to the point of this post. Brian Niro from A Gentleman's Ones blog is our fifth team leader, the man in charge of creating a fantastic display table for the armies when they make their combined public debut at Chicago Games Day in less than two weeks. Brian has been hard at work creating something extra special. Take a look at the WIP photos below.

Not only are these tables going to look great on the day, but they'll brilliantly showcase the hard work of over two dozen hobbyists. They will also be for sale! That's right, if you are interested in buying the 8' x 6' worth of killer table, you can get in touch with Brian directly at:

gentlemansones@gmail.com

Pick up would need to be from Games Day, or Brian's place (in the Chicagoland area). Of course, all the money will go to benefitting Doctors Without Borders.

We're almost there folks!

Big Badda Boom!

I had a few very cool (and ultra important) snaps sent my way today, so I'm combining them all in this latest post about the Heroes of Armageddon project.

Last post I mentioned a couple of superheavies. The first is the Stormsword you see here. Donated and assembled by a great gamer and all-round good guy Phil Lisak, this fully resin Forge World tank was then painted by Joe Marshall, Brien Dulaney, and myself. You can catch a glimpse of it in some of our "tank painting extravaganza" photos here. This Stormsword is the 12th vehicle of the 8th Armageddon Superheavy Tank Company. This notable formation was initially composed entirely of Stormswords, but as losses have been suffered and requirements changed, new superheavy patterns have been introduced. This tank is named Hammer of Hades.

And now, I can finally bring you a look at the cherry on top of the sundae that is the Steel Legion army. It's something I started thinking about after having the opportunity to play with a Reaver Titan at last year's War Games Con. After discovering the potency of the Apocalyptic Missile Launcher, I wondered what it would be like to see it on the back of a big-ass tank.

Early on in the HoA project I spoke with Matt from Miniature Wargames Conversions, a guy who has created some pretty amazing "Apocalypse-style" conversions/builds in the past, and he agreed to take on the task. After the past few months Matt has been tinkering away, gathering a few bits from here and there, to create what I would like to dub the "Golgotha".

When Matt had finished the tank, he shipped it off to Brandon from GMM Studios. Again, another great guy and spectacular hobbyist, who whipped up this great paint job on the mighty Golgotha. Brandon assures me the airbrush stripes are Rotting Flesh in hue (to match the rest of the tanks), but his lights appear to have slightly washed it out.

Honestly, both guys have done a spectacular job, donating their time, talents, and personal savings to bring this dream to life. I take my hat off to them.

And of course, I couldn't leave well enough alone. I wanted the Golgotha to have a cool observation team scouting ahead and plotting in co-ordinates for the massive destruction that would follow. To that end, a mate of mine in Philly (thank you Jeremy) purchased a FW Tauros Venator from Showcase Comics (sometimes Mike deals in second hand kits, often unopened like this) and shipped it off to Jeff Wilhelm of Dragon Forge Design, supplier of the bases for the Steel Legion army. In between casting and shipping off his great range of awesome bases, Jeff assembled and started on the paint work for this cool recon vehicle, before sending it through to me for the finishing touches (including helping it match the other Elysian Recon elements of the army).

So, tomorrow some of these photos head off to Bigred, from Bell of Lost Souls, along with some thoughts on the possible rules for the Golgotha and its spotter. He'll be working his magic and preparing a wonderful set of rules for using this brand new superheavy. As soon as I get the sheet back, it'll be straight up on the blog.

So, if you want these great models, worth over 1,000 points and a retail cost of over $500, then head to the donation button and donate a ton of money, or just a little bit. Every bit helps, so please tell your friends (especially the wealthy ones).

Cheers

Dave

The Steel Legion get some Transports!

Last night the mighty Battlefoam case (a rolling PACK 1520 XL to be exact) arrived at my house. I burst straight into it's cavern of foamy goodness and started packing in the models.

With the front hatch open, you can see the 22" of foam stacked from top to bottom. Those of you who were reading this blog around this time last year might remember the post I did on filling the Battlefoam case with the Storm Wardens army. If not, here's that post. With Battlefoam donating FOUR cases this year (including lots of custom foam trays), I felt it was only right to do the same sort of thing.

Here you go:

Tray one, holding 550 points, still has quite a bit of room for adding another few squads.

Tray two, holding 635pts, is pretty tightly packed but there's still room for a few characters.

Almost full, Tray three is holding 425 points (and five of the seven heavy weapons teams)

Maxed out, Tray four holds 560 points.

Tray five has a little room left over, but currently holds the 130 points of Vendetta (plus the other two heavy weapons teams).

With a little extra room for more tanks in the future (or part of a surprise) Tray six holds 705 points of big gun goodness.

And tucked away down the bottom of this case is the Superheavy tray (or Tray seven). It currently holds a 450 point Stormsword (more about that in tomorrow's post), but it will also be shipped out with another piece of superheavy excitement. This surprise tank will hopefully be shown on Monday or Tuesday, keep your eyes peeled.

So, there you have it. A massive Steel Legion army sitting in around $300 worth of foam trays and sturdy rolling luggage (apparently the "canvas" is actually a ballistic material, ie. used to make bullet-proof vests).

For those of you who weren't tallying as you went. This army currently stands at 3,455 points, with Commissar Yarrick, the Master of Ordnance, and the surprise Superheavy still to go.

Yes, this beast of a collection will top out at OVER 4,000 points! Thank you Battlefoam, for providing an awesome transportation case for this monster!

How can you win this? Donate more money to Doctors Without Borders via the Paypal button in the top right navigation, Go on, do it now!

Cheers

Dave