More news soon. Onwards…
Well, what happened there then? For the first couple of months of this year, posts were coming up on Heresy & Heroes thick and fast. And then, just like that, they stopped a few weeks back. So what happened? Well, I have been exceptionally busy, but for a truly awesome reason.
Yours truly, the author of this illustrious blog (well, I think it’s illustrious – it’s at least illustri-ish), will be moving up to a beautiful town in the East Midlands at the end of this month. That town is called Nottingham. And I have a new job in Nottingham. At Warhammer World. I am going to be working for the Warhammer Community team on their website! *screeches with inaudible excitement and does funky dance* No big deal.
Ok, so I’ve only wanted to work for GW since I was about 9 years old. And I went up for an interview in late March and they said that they wanted me. I remember sitting in a room, with freakin’ Ghal Maraz behind me, and thinking “well, I’m just happy I got to interview” and so I can’t tell you how excited I am that it all went so well and that I’ll be part of the Warhammer Community team, working on their website very soon.
Now, I can’t say too much more, but hopefully I’ll be able to bring a lot of what has made Heresy & Heroes so fun to Games Workshop’s Community site. So, keep your eyes peeled for more news there, and maybe even my name every now and again.
But, having had to do so much admin, so much packing, talking to cleaners, and movers, and hotels… I haven’t had any time to paint. I started work on a genestealer cult gang for Necromunda but that’s all been packed away now. In fact, most of my life has been packed away now, but I’ll be unpacking it all in my new flat in Nottingham by the end of the month.
Heresy & Heroes isn’t going anywhere either. It will always be here, and I will update it as and when I can once I’ve started. I’m going to be a very busy man once i get up there, but I’m going to try and find the time to keep you guys up to date on my painting work. I could never truly desert you lot – you’re part of the reason I got this job. True, my raw charisma, charm, talent and intelligence played their part, but you’ve given me almost five years to hone my craft, so thanks for that. Pats on backs all round.
I hope that explains the silence around here, and that you’re satisfied with the reasons why I’ve not been posting so much of late. I have been a ball of anxiety, nerves, excitement and joy for a while now, but I wanted to make sure you knew where I was and where I was going, and to look out for me in my grey t-shirt when you come up to Nottingham. If you spot me at an event, I do hope you’ll come up and say hello.
For the first time in a long time, and certainly not for the last time; Onwards!
Wow. I mean, just wow. When it comes to Games Workshop news, this morning’s mega dump from Adepticon of new bits and pieces was like a birthday, Christmas, lottery win, Easter and free pizza all rolled up together. If you’ve been blissfully unaware of hobby developments this morning, you might want to head on over to the Warhammer Community Website right now and read up on the truly amazing and awesome things heading our way soon. I am going to quickly cover off some of the 40k centric points here, but you should see everything that’s coming out – giant sea turtles, anyone? Now without further ado, let’s crack on…







So, yesterday my Genestealer Cult gang name generator appeared on this blog, but just a couple of days ago, my work featured once again on the Warhammer Community website. You can find a slightly updated Orlock Gang Name Generator along with some of my trademark waffle to accompany it.
I have to say that it’s a joy working with the Community team and that they’re really open and receptive to new ideas. It was also fun updating the name generator just a touch. Everyone was clamouring for me to do one really quickly, but it was good the second time around as I was able to pull on the new lore and descriptions from Gang War 2.
Anyway, enough of all this. Two posts in two days!? Check out old Motormouth over here! I have many, many things to be getting on with so I shall leave you to enjoy your day. More painting updates coming soon (hopefully). Have loads of fun. Onwards!
“The walls are barbed, and thicker than a heavy ore crawler. They stretch high into the toxin-choked haze, their peaks lost in the sickly clouds that spread across the world of Necromunda. Beyond them, the unspoken horrors of a madman’s folly slumber. But sleep within the ruins of Hive Secundus (as was) is fitful and tortured by visions; visions of a saviour.
Patrols of Ash Waste Enforcers circle in patterns at the base of the titanic walls. Many know that the Second Hive was lost, but few of them know the truth. Their ignorance is a flaw in their strain. For patterns are predictable, and even these mighty walls have cracks and hollows large enough for a man, or something more than a man to pass through.
And so on the darkest of nights, when the distant lights of Hive Primus are but a gentle hazy glow in the suffocating murk, they stir. The servants of The Four Armed Emperor slip silently through those cracks and hollows, and when the predictable patrols have passed, they move like hunters into the dark ocean of the ash wastes after dusk. Some are caught, but others pass through the nets, and they always head toward the lights…”
– Hiver, Jayzen Smiter (trying to scare his grandchildren)
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And so the Genestealer Cults have arrived in Necromunda and I have to say that they are very interesting. I’ve been pouring over the White Dwarf rules for this latest faction and I like them. Certainly enough to start work on a gang myself (already underway) because they are presenting something quite different.
They have a real glass cannon feel to them. Neophytes are as slow as Goliaths but have only the physicality of the Escher. But they are capable of bringing some very cool weapons to the fight. The mining laser is going to be a terrifying proposition for anyone to have to deal with, while things like the webber make everyone on the opposing team vulnerable to being taken out.
Add to that access to hand flamers and needle pistols with their toxin traits, and you’ve got some mean fire power. But given their choices in hand to hand combat, you should be scared of them there too. If they get their charges off, you’ll be facing mauls, picks, hammers, chainswords, boneswords, toxin claws… they’ve got a really impressive arsenal to choose from, but if you get the drop on them, they’re somewhat squidgy. Just an opinion based on initial readings – I’ll need to play some games with and against them first.
But enough of all this tactical nonsense. If you saw the woeful state of my humbled and hobbled Goliath gang right now, you wouldn’t listen to a damn thing I had to say on the subject of tactics. But you are often keen on my name generators, so here you go:
Same rules as before, but with a little bit of a format change-up to make things a little more varied and a little more culty. You take the first letter of your first name to generate the first part, then add ‘of the’, before using your surname to generate the second part. If you initials are DR, you could be leading the Deserving of the Rictus Maw. Or if your initials are ES, you could be taking charge of the Emissaries of the Silent Shadow.
The names hopefully mix in the arrogance that nearly all cults exude, and the promises that only the genestealer menace can offer. The above format also allows me to play around with a few more words and make things a little more descriptive too.
More on my painting projects soon (hopefully) and I do hope that you’re having plenty of fun with your games and your painting. Onwards!
This week, we’ve been treated to some early pictures of the upcoming Forgebane box set that sees the Martians and their “diddy knights” take on the undead cyber-Egyptians that are the Necrons. It looks like an amazing box, and I dare say I’ll be picking up a copy if only for the duo of diddy knights (yes, that’s what I’m calling them, get used to it). But it brings up an interesting question; if someone came up to you and said “What ho, old chap. One’s looking to get in on this Warhammer 40,000 malarky, but one was wondering how best to start. Any advice, sport?” (your friends may use a different vernacular) what would you say?




After the flurry of activity last week, I’ve been taking it a bit easy of late. Well, not really – I’ve been buzzing around like a blue-arsed fly as the popular phraseology would have it, but not much of that activity has been focussed on my painting. But last night I found just a scrap of time to put some things together and so I can bring you an update today, featuring first, a look at the next project.
When I took my BA Vet squad to Nottingham for the Horus Heresy & Necromunda Weekender Golden Demon, they earned me a pin, which I am still absolutely thrilled with. And, as mentioned before, when I picked them up after the event, I asked one of the judge chaps there about what could help turn them from a 4th place entry to a 3rd place entry or better. He told me to put as much effort as I had put into that 10 man squad into a five man squad instead. So that’s what I’m doing.
Now admittedly, this isn’t much to look at. Yet. I’ve put together the five bases I’m going to be using for this project, and it was plenty of fun hacking up my bits box to create these post-apocalyptic micro-scenes that will function as the setting for my five man squad.
I’m going to be doing Blood Angels again, but this time around, they will be from the 41st Millennium. The captivating tales of sons of Sanguinius and their desperate defence of Baal against the Tyranids have inspired me, and these are essentially going to be a red version of the Tyrranic Wars veterans of the Ultramarines. These guys are going to be battered, mismatched and looking desperate, yet defiant.
But for now, you’ll have to settle for these pictures of some bases. Work begins again on this project this evening, and hopefully soon, I’ll have more interesting things to show you. Preferably something red. I’m hoping that the theme will also help me out here, though of course the primary focus is going to be on the painting side, and I need to switch gears from clean to dirty yet again.
So, now let’s turn to the 2nd part of this update. I have been asked, both on this blog and other places to give you some close ups of the duel that I showed off last week, highlighting a bit of the detail that has gone into that piece. Well, as I am feeling particularly generous, I have acquiesced to said requests with the images below. Now, this was done with my iPhone camera, and given that I am one of the world’s leading ‘not the best’ photographers, I promise nothing in terms of quality or lack of blurriness. But still, I hope you can spot the bits of freehand, weird details, weathering and spurting blood. You’ll also get a better look at the star field on the Harlequin’s jacket. Here’s a dump for you:
And so there you have it. One is always a little nervous about blowing up 28mm scale miniatures to such sizes and though I’ve spotted a couple of things that I’d update and fix, they look ok. Nothing too bad to worry about at least.
That’s all I have to update you on now, but stay tuned for further progress, and hopefully more of that soon. May your efforts go more speedily than my own, and may you have plenty of fun as well. Onwards!




It’s actually starting to come together. The duel is getting closer and closer to being done, and it’s getting rather exciting. I’ve not had too much time to work on it recently, and I’ve got a bit of artistic block going at the moment, but it won’t be long before this project reaches its finale.
Let’s start with the base, and as you can see here, it’s done:
All of it is now painted up, and I put more care into this one than I have with any base before. Those edges aren’t dry-brushed – I painted the highlight on each lip of that rock. It took a while to do, but it was worth it. I was very conservative with the grass, and I even added some cascading shells made from clipped bits of paperclip. It’s hard to pick it out in the above image, but eventually you’ll see a picture where one of those bullets looks like it’s still tumbling.
And with the base completed, it was time put the terminator together, and add some weathering…
I didn’t go heavy on the weathering at all. There are a few small patches of grime here and there, and a few small patches of blood (obvs not his) dotted around, as well as a very light dusting of his feet with grey – the iPhone camera doesn’t really pick it up in the above shot but it does help to dull the lower regions down.
I placed him on the base to mark out where he’s going to stand upon that rock formation, and he promptly dived for cover. I had to get out some super glue and redo an arm after that.
You can see in the above image the wound in his torso (to the right hand side of the first spike if you go right from the ring in the cen… the big hole in his middle with the blood coming out). I wanted to have some blood spurting from this as the monofilament is extracting itself. Well, here’s my solution:
They’re hard to see in this image, but those are two strands of my own hair, that have had Blood For The Blood God painted onto them. The glossy paint naturally beads up on the hair, and I”l be cutting off small sections of this to use as spurting blood. And spurting blood isn’t nearly as gross as blue tack with hair stuck in it, and no-one can say I don’t put my all into these projects!
Speaking of thin strands, this is what I’m using for the monofilament wire, and for all intents and purposes, this pretty much is monofilament wire. I was going to use fly tying wire from the fishing industry, but instead, I got this stuff. They use it to make really fine mesh for vapes. How fine? Well, if you look at the image above, look at where it says ’30’ on the right hand side – that’s the 30mm spot obviously. Now the thick line that runs up to the top corner, next to the ’30’ – there’s a tiny break in that line just there near the ’30’. You see it? That’s the wire. ‘Thin’ isn’t the word.
After a long time spent painstakingly converting my solitaire, and worrying about how I’m going to paint him, I’m now ready to paint him, though I don’t quite know how to do his jacket which I want to be a bit of a freehand piece. There’s not a huge amount of room, but I should be able to get some sort of pattern in there. At the moment I’m still weighing up paisley, Chinese embroidery, William Morris print, peacock feathers… So although I’m ready to paint it up, I still have that choice to make. Hopefully I’ll make a decision soon.
It’s all getting very close now. It’s really exciting and I have sort of been able to mock up the final pose once, and I likes it. If I can find some time this weekend, I may actually get this done! We’ll see though. No promises – I’m taking my time with this guy. I hope you’re having plenty of fun with your painting too. Onwards!