Looking forward to social contact!

 Welcome back to the Vault my fellow Venturers! Every so often I like to take a step back from sharing the pictures of the minis I've been painting, and sharing cool stories from the games I've played to reflect on why we engage in these hobbies.

I had the great fortune to spend some time with Dave G over the weekend, and we caught up on all things 40K related, our latest painting projects and what we are looking forward to in the future. We are scheduling a game of 40K (the first table top outing for my Death Guard), and really looking forward to the opening of First Founding when lockdown finally buggers off.

Regimental Reporting: Lord Castellan Creed

 Welcome back to the Vault! Today's post is another "show and tell" as I've completed another 40K model. One of the joys of collecting a 40K force from one of the established factions in the lore is that many of them have "Special Characters"; the heroes and villains who participate in the myriad background stories that you can have join your models in the table top. There's also great satisfaction in generating your own characters as well of course (Colonel Staysback of the Cadian 82nd is widely regarded as one of the greatest if not the greatest heroes of the Imperium within my play group. Ahem.)

In fact Colonel Staysback reputation is so amazing that Lord Castellan Creed has decided to go on campaign with the 82nd to see what he can learn from the Colonel.

Twisted Fungi

 Welcome back to the Vault! I've had a wonderful few days of holiday, and I've indulged in some painting sessions. I mentioned in the last painting post that I wanted to work on some non-Death Guard models as I've got a bit jaded painting gold trim and grunge! 

So first of the mini projects is the Twisted Fungi collection from Krakon Games. I'm a big fan of the quirky Krakon models, having backed a few of their Kickstarters (I selected these fun guys from the Sidhe/forest creatures project).

Circle of Wildfire Guide

Welcome back to the Vault! I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I am currently playing a Circle of Wildfire Druid in a weekly Dungeons and Dragons 5E campaign, and I thought it would be fun to write a guide as to why and how I’m playing the character (primarily from a rules/mechanics point of view). I’m by no means stating this is the only way, or best way to play the spec, but rather how I’m using the options available to me.

I’m also not going to debate the merits of the Circle compared to the other Druid subclasses available; there are some good guides out there, and I’m assuming you are comfortable with the decision to play Wildfire. I’m also not getting into the whole “Unearthed Arcana version” vs “Tasha version” debate; Tasha’s is what we have as the final published version, and there’s no point crying over spilt milk.

Thematically a Wildfire Druid understands the natural cycle whereby destruction can be the precursor of creation; a forest fire can destroy existing vegetation yet also promotes later growth. This idea sits well with my character, Immerel, who having seen his previous home destroyed is now contemplating the health of the land in a more holistic manner (I’ve taken the option to re-spec from Circle of the Land to Circle of Wildfire).

Pestilential Painting: Noxious Blightbringer complete!

Welcome back to the Vectorium and hold onto your hats everyone; I've finished painting a model! The Noxious Blightbringer which has been on the painting desk for the last few weeks has been completed, and I'm pretty happy with the results. Let's take a look!

Pestilential Painting: Foetid Bloat Drones

 Welcome back to the Vectorium! The crappy weather over the weekend gave me the opportunity to indulge in a leisurely hobby session. Sensible Varchilde should have put paint onto some of the Death Guard models, but the hobby butterfly alighted on my shoulder and I decided to build some more models to add to the painting back log instead!

Thus the addition of two Foetid Bloat Drones to reinforce the original Drone from the Dark Imperium box set. The first of the Daemon Engines is armed with the ridiculously named Flesh Mower.

Mind Games

 Welcome back to the Vault! Hobby time has been incredibly limited this week, bar the very welcome Friday night D&D shenanigans of Immerel and company. (High level adventurers we may be, but it looks like we've been duped. Again. At least it wasn't by a group of giant monkeys like last time, so that's good I guess.)

I keep a notebook where I can scribble down hobby and gaming ideas; occasionally the muse will strike, and if I don't note it then inevitably I'll forget it. Currently I'm trying to come up with some 5th edition character concepts which may eventually get elaborated into fully fleshed PCs. The aim is to sketch out a character per class, so if the opportunity comes up to play something I've got a head start on what I'd like to try out.