The Black Crusade is launched!

In 2010 and 2011, I worked with a dedicated team of hobbyists across the country to bring you two great charity events. The first was The Stormwardens Army build, the second was The Heroes of Armageddon Army builds. Over those two years we raised close to $50,000 for Doctors Without Borders, an amazing charity doing great work around the world.

Well, during last year's efforts we worked ourselves a little too hard and stretched ourselves a little too thin. When it cam to talking about this year's efforts we agreed we might take a little break.

Thankfully, Falk from Tabletop Fix was waiting in the wings to fill the void.

He has teamed up with a bunch of other hobbyists and has recently launched the Black Crusade of 2012. Click on the link, check out the details, and consider getting involved in some way or other. The cause is another good one, and I'll be following their progress. With any luck it'll get me excited about participating in another crazy thing next year!

Cheers
Dave

The Golgotha!

Early on in the Heroes of Armageddon project I knew that I wanted to have a couple of surprises that I could "pull out of my hat" towards the end of the donation period. A little something that would show everyone that we were serious about creating unique armies. One of the surprises I concocted for the Steel Legion army was the mighty Golgotha Superheavy Missile-Platform.

Following a discussion with Matt Bonders from Miniature Wargame Conversions, I knew I had someone who could create my vision in miniature form. Matt pulled together the necessary funds and bought the Baneblade and Reaver Missile Launcher required to put this bad boy together. Although there were a few hiccups along the way, Matt sent the finished tank off to Brandon Palmer of GMM Studios, who put the great paintjob on the tank as only he can do, swiftly, but with a lot of gorgeous detailing.

A big THANK YOU to both these guys for their contributions!

In my mind, a massive artillery piece like this would certainly need an observation post, a spotter of some kind. In stepped Jeremy Webb, who bought this Elysian Tauros Venator for the job. Jeremy shipped it off to Jeff Wilhelm (of Dragon Forge fame) who started on the assembly and paint job. As the deadline drew closer and Jeff's real life workload grew, he passed it back to me to wrap things up. In a collaborative project like HOA, it is vitally important that communication is regular and that expectations are met. In this case Jeff kept me appraised of his situation and we worked out a plan B before things got too late. Success!

Another big THANK YOU to both Jeremy and Jeff!

And finally, nothing this big would be complete without an Apocalypse datasheet from the master of Apoc datasheets, Larry Vela! (or Bigred from Bell of Lost Souls). I laid out my thoughts on the possible rules, then Larry went to town creating a very cool set of rules. You can download the datasheet from HERE.

THANK YOU Larry, for all your work on this too.

So, there you have it. A great part of the HOA project, and a cool datasheet to go with it. You now have all you need to make your own right? I know I'll be adding one to my Blood Pact army ; )

Cheers

Dave

Heroes At Games Day!

Well, it has been a few days since Chicago Games Day, so I figured I should put up a post. I went out to Chicago with my wife and daughter, so it was quite a long trip (lots of sightseeing included) and I'm not fully recovered just yet.

All of that means this will be a quick one. More info to come later in the week, but here are a bunch of photo I took of Heroes of Armageddon stuff at the show.

Kirill brought his Commissar Yarrick to the show and he did not disappoint. With his yellow claw and subtle shading, he was a great match for Ghazghkull. Kirill entered him in the toughest category in GD, the 40K Single Miniature, and walked away with a Final Cut pin.

Here are a few photos of the table on the day.

Here's a friend of mine (and former colleague from GW Oz) Matt Weaver running the Armies On Parade booth at the show. In just a few short months, Matt will be running the triumphant return of Games Day to Australia's shores! Good Luck Matt, I hope it runs smoothly for you!

Ghaz and the Old Man face off on the causeway.

John Dickerman (left), one half of the HOA overlords, chats with Dan (right) from GW's What's New Today blog (that will hopefully be showing off some of my Empire army soon).

And finally, Jawaballs doing his best Vanna White impression, showing off the FOUR Pack 1520s kindly donated by Battlefoam.

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!