Tabletop Teacher

It's 11th of November, and the 100 year Anniversary of the end of Word War 1. The tradition here in the UK is to wear poppies and lay wreathes of the flower on various memorials dotted around the country, as a way of paying respects to soldiers who gave their lives during both World Wars in particular and and solider who has lost their life in service in general. It's a sombre cultural event, and is usually about the tragedy of war and the importance of keeping peace. Paper poppy sales go on to fund veteran charities and such. Last year I "converted" two Games Workshop Models, stripping them of weapons in place of being flower holders. To this day they stand in the front of my classroom, holding their poppies up. It's important for those of us who push around plastic soldiers and entertain ourselves with stories of war and combat to remember that our table top fantasy is built on a foundation of utter catastrophe. These models are a reminder th...

Last chance for the Black Library Open Submissions! Head over to Warhammer Community now to maybe start your (very niche!) writing career! I've posted a Warhammer 40,000 story here before, about a Fallen Dark Angel's life on a back water planet, and it went over a huge amount of revisions thanks to feedback from readers. I'll be posting the final story, the one I submitted to Black Library, later this week. I submitted another story tonight as well, a story I wrote in the Age of Sigmar setting. I've been looking at Seraphon Carnosaurs for a while now, trying to convince myself I don't want one (rather unsuccessfully too). I think the new Lizardmen are a wonderful feat of imagination, being remembered warriors from the old Warhammer Fantasy, made real again by celestial magic. It's an idea wholly unique to Warhammer, forged by creators trying to justify Aztec dinosaurs in the new game universe without the jungles they could have evolved in. How else wil...

Please spare a moment of your time to think about the soldiers who aren't made of plastic, and for whom a failed save roll is much more bitter. Remembrance Day is a UK event where we remember fallen and still active soldiers who have gone out to fight in our place. It's important for us as war gamers to not forget the reality of combat, so that we never bury the seriousness of a squaddie's sacrifice under abstract dice rolls and clinical ruling. This is especially true if you work with kids, like I do. We run the risk of glamorising war with each flick of the paint brush, and often go out of our way to make killing tools look good. That's not to say we shouldn't enjoy our hobby, that would be daft. We just need to occasionally remind ourselves, and the young people we engage with, that we only play a game. With that said, I'm not going to leave this post as a sermonising lecture, and instead give you a quick painting tutorial. If you...

Well... a longer shift than usual at the boarding house. It was really sort of a soft-interview. More on that later. Anyway, this is the Stormcast Lord Celestant part of the whole model. The picture quality is not so good. It was too late to go and take the picture in my lab, so the lighting isn't so good. Compounding that is the fact that this is the inking stage, so everything is ridiculously dark. Ah well. Next week's picture will look muuuch better. OK, I'm exhausted. Until next time! Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated. If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day! If you really love what I do here, you can make a one off donation at my  PayPal , or become a true ...

The Dracoth mount is now done! Well... nearly. You can see how the blue armour panels are very flat compared to the rest of the miniature. They're waiting for the Lord Celestant to be completed, and a star pattern to be painted on them. They'll then get another Nuln Oil wash to darken them down to a night sky colour, but I don't want to get started on that until the man himself is done, so that a constellation can be painted on them both. Re-thinking the weekly format of the blog at this point, due to not being able to consistently get the paid post out on Fridays. If anyone has any weekly column ideas for me to write about, let me know in the comments below. Until next time! Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated. If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments ...

My fellow neck beards... Valentine's Day is typically a day of sadness, regret, and far too much junk food. But as someone who has finally managed to roll a natural 20 on the relationship check, believe me when I say there is hope for us all. For my darling wife, who somehow manages to still put up with me and my plastic soldiers, I have crafted the following... a Liberator of the Flowers of Sigmar! Bugman's Glow, with a wash of Carrobourg Crimson... a highlight of Khorne Red mixed with Ceramite White. These, indeed, are the colours of love. Made in an hour's feverish work as she lay sleeping in the morning, with a fresh flower picked in the forest. Here's the thing... you may not have the car, the muscles or the wallet. But remember to take advantage of the things you do have. A selection of paints no one used at the club. An abandoned Liberator from a students first paint session. Bit of foil left over from a failed experiment to launch a Space Mari...

Thank the Lord-Emperor it's Work in Progress Wednesday! It was House Drama tonight, on top of an all day Physics event, on top of me being on duty in the House, on top of doing some disciplinary admin (i.e. setting detentions), and on top of that, planning for two full days worth of lessons for exhausted kids. Also, reports due in tomorrow. So here's a quick post with a dragon covered in armour. Dracoth head Dracoth ridden by invisible Stormcast Close up of the invisible Stormcast. He has three heads. I really like how the scale and horns worked out on the dracoth. It's amazing what you can do with some Nuln Oil and a bit of patience in letting things dry. Until next time! Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated. If you have anything you want me to look at, let me ...

So I've started painting up the Stormcast side of the Age of Sigmar box set I bought for the club. The students, despite me telling them it was fine to mess up painting these minis (since it's bought for them), really didn't want to mess up the models. So I said I'd mess it up for them. The colour scheme is going to be largely similar to the vanilla Stormcast chamber, but I'm going to give it some twists. I'm still not wholly sold on the setting for Age of Sigmar, but I'm working my way into a new perspective on it. Until next time! Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Facebook or Google+ would also be hugely appreciated. If you have anything you want me to look at, let me know in the comments below. I'll probably be able to write an article about that topic within a day! If you really love what I do ...

So with this reveal today, we can put to bed the vague notion that this picture: ... in any way indicated a possible Eldar Exodite model. Ah well. It's a good miniature, but I have to question Games Workshop in their choice of continuing to put out models for the Stormcast Eternals when they still only have a few new armies to lead the way in Age of Sigmar. Just a minor criticism, but I've been holding back on really getting into AoS because I haven't been sure what's going to be available in the future. I don't see much point in buying up aelves or duardin if the possibility of them being redundant is still hovering around. I'm probably over-thinking that. 15 hour day both in front of students and then pressing the flesh at parents evening. Not thinking straight. Paid post tomorrow! Thanks for reading. If you liked what you saw, and you want to help out, please leave a comment. Sharing this with your friends, and following me on Twitter , Fac...