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

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