eBay purchases I shouldn’t regret

Iapedus at Languor Management recently did an inventory check of all the models he had to paint with the rather drastic result of entering into a 12 step programme to try and curtail his relentless hobby spending. As a self-confessed hobby addict myself I could understand his situation. Thankfully my hobby spending is rather more controlled. I’m sure we’re both getting top bargains, which is part of the fun side of scouring ebay but I’m always mindful of what I already have knocking around. That said I have vision in my head of things I want to do and at times that requires a purchase to then turn that fantasy into a reality.

Anyway, when I was commenting on his blog I was eagerly eyeing up a few Buy It Nows that would get me the parts for a ‘Crayon’ Whirlwind, a Land Speeder and a Sentinel all for around £24! But then I saw this auction for the Whirlwind, plus original Rogue Trader Rhino. The result being I was able to snap it up for £6.10, [plus £2.90 postage]. A couple of quid more than the Buy It Now, but with a legacy ‘relic’ tank to go with it! I must explain the two elements to this – number 1 as I have Rogue Trader tanks I feel aesthetically bound to continue with those, which is a shame as I really like the new Rhino model. Secondly this Whirlwind variant has always appealed to me, not for the relatively silly crayon rockets but the marine in the turret that echoes the Land Speeder Vengeance gunner. For this reason I’ve been
hungering for this model for quite a while, which again is a shame as I like the current Whirlwind to. But, for £9 that’s not a bad deal and again I got the adrenal kick of a real auction, sniping in the last minute.

I then followed up with another purchase. Sentinels for my Genestealer Cult, I love the concept and aesthetic of the these. Two with flamers and close combat chainsaws. Sadly missing weapons on one and their canopies but I can live with that. Final auction price £15.10 [plus £2.90 postage]. Again a pretty good bargain at 40% off. The missing weapons are unfortunate but I’ll pick them up at some point.

However, the purchases have made me think, in much the same way Iapedus tool stock. I have plenty of models now and I will therefore not be getting any more for the foreseeable future. My To Do List has me covered so new models are just going to be sat waiting to paint and I want to keep my spends down too.

That said there are a number of exceptions. I have some Amazon Vouchers, which would allow me to pick up some more Acolytes. This would give me plenty of options for my second set of Deathwatch Cultists – making them far more intersting and divers compare with the standard set I already have. Additionally I have £40 of vouchers for Wargames. I’ve earmarked that for the Tyranid Codex, rumoured for October/November. In addition I’ll be ordering a box of Empire Flagellants. I’ve always loved them from back when they were only available in metal. I loved their rules and figures and the plastic ones look fantastic. I’m planning to convert them into my Genestealer cult so I have even more random diversity – a heady mix of [chaos] cultists, mine-worker cultists, fanatic cultists and maybe even some Guard Cultists one day – to illustrate how the cult infiltrated all manner of Ferron society.

In the mean time it looks like I have a lot on my palette…

eBay purchases I shouldn’t regret

It’s a dangerous thing to trawl eBay the day after pay day but in fairness I don’t think I’ve gone too overboard. I managed to pick up this bike and bits for two attack bikes for just £5.99! I’m thinking they might look cool on some Dark Vengeance bikes although I can’t decide, given the DV bikes are leaning to one side, if I should re-pose the bikes or have the side cars cocked in the air like a puppy fit to burst 🙂 Still, I’ll need to get the DV bikes first but I thought this was too good a deal to pass up, the banner, extra rider and clear base just bonuses.

I then went looking for Tyranid bits. I had a plan in my head to convert some monstrous Deathspitters and some extra Scything Talons magnetised for bare-bones Screamer Killer Carnifex. I came across this auction for ‘Warhammer 40k bits Tyranid bitz joblot Metal Broodlord’ which had Deathspitters – check

Scything Talons – check.

Various Termagant weapons, meh, OK, whatever.

And then these…

I suppose this must be the Broodlord then? A metal Hive Tyrant. Now the interesting thing is, I have a sets of plastic Hive Tyrant legs and extras not used when I made my Flyrant and another sprue the same from another bits purchase. Essentially I had everything to make a Tyrant and this auction was at 99p with one bidder and 20 hours to go. OK we all know that was going to change and it did. My winning bid was £10.51 with £4 postage, which I still think is good value and I got the added adrenaline rush from the auction closing. Sure I’d always imagined I’d get a ‘start collecting’ box to fill out my 3rd Tyrant slot and remaing Gargoyles but as we no longer have that formation theeres no point. Also three Tyrants is less of desire with more unit options available but this on it’s own I think is worth £14, thanks to the bits already in my collection.

But also a couple of plastic Termagants, plus two original metal gaunts. 4 Hormagaunts and some Hive Nodes [always useful]there were even some Carnifex heads, a carapace and Crushing Claws!

A load of carapace armour pieces, Flesh Hooks and six Rippers and whatever that metal thing is in the middle [ironically some Zoanthrope back vents that would fit the ones missing on my second Zoie!].

Plus extra Deathspitters to add to my conversion plans. Spinefists – I couldn’t give a F*#~ about pistols zero use to me, they’ll join the rest of them – perhaps I should just make a reclamation pit with them in 😉

And the final bonus in thiss haul – Genestealer heads and look at all those feeder tendril heads! I could sell those individually at £2-£2.50 each. But with 4 of them I’ll put together a Brood that matches the one I already have and then swap it out for a brood of their own.

So a little over £20 for a lot of bits that actually is worth far more than it initially seems.

The bad thing… ebay purchases I won’t regret

When we left it last I’d traded one of the very first models that formed part of my son’s army, that I since ‘appropriated’ [look, I let him live in my house I donlt owe him anything!]. I knew that Otty was just a little uncomfortable to take something that was painted, he’d said that these Broodlords were seeling for quite a bit on ebay, hence why he’d asked me to trade, so I took it as a challenge.

I managed to see this lot at auction and put in a bid for £5.10 [with £4 postage]. I honestly though I’d missed out becuase even when you;re a winner it asks you if you want to  make a higher bid and at first glance I’d assumed I’d lost and moved onto looking at something else by the same seller. The fact was I’d won, so I can swap this Broodlord for the one I already gave Otty and I’ve also got 14 Genestealers… yay!? Oh crap, add that to the 31 I’m painting the 50+ cultists and my eventual plan to get the complete set of Space Hulk ones… too many Stealers. I did think to sell them but they’re already shadow-washed in my colours! We’ll see what happens.

Anyway, the other lot I was looking as was a double sized Citadel case, just with no foam inserts. I was only interested in it because there was a couple of minutes to go and it was only at a tenner.

The foam isn;t an issue as I’ll eventually be getting different foam sizes to try to accommodate some of my weirder shaped models and this was going to be perfect. Postage was £6 but if I got the Stealers combined postage would be awesome 🙂 then I thought I’d missed the Stealers 😦 then I was notified just as this was closing I’d got them 🙂 I put my bid in and got it for £10.50!

I contacted the seller to see about combined postage and the next day he’d slashed the Stealer postage so it was going to cost me just £6 delivery with a grand total of £21.60! That’s pretty cool, he didn’t have to do that [although that’s what I would have done]. I’ll be sure to write him a glowing review.

Eight Genestealers new are £15 from Element Games so I consider this a pretty cool bargain. However, how on earth do I explain this to the wife? This is coming in the post and I can’t explain it away like Renegade – ‘it’s not mine, half is Liam’s and half is some guy’s in Australia! ‘Sure it is husband dear…’

Hopefully I can re-jig stuff in the Mancave to accommodate this…

ebay sales you won’t regret

My multi-award winning painter and friend Liam at bluewarpstudios has a slew of new auctions on ebay. He’s decided to really test our friendship by getting a Knight army so has to clear the decks of old models to make way for new.

I’m a little sad to see some of the super heavies go from our Apocalypse WOW! battle and there’s both his scratchbuilt ‘stubby’ pattern Caestus Assault Rams but there may well be something here to interest you so hit up his blog to see what’s on offer:
http://bluewarpstudios.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/blast-from-my-passed-ebay-sales.html

Not quite ebay sales you won’t regret

OK folks, what I have here is that my nephew is getting out of 40k. The one that inspired my own son to dip into the muddy waters of Games Workshop and so helped me fall off the wagon! He’s got quite a lot of stuff, some still on sprues and some painted as only a 10 year old can. I thought I’d offer them up first to readers before I go through ebay. Ideally I’m after selling each of the factions [Space Marine, Tau, Orks, and a few Lizardmen] in whole lots.

So what I’ve done is look at the GW retail price for the full value, then looked at 3rd party/ebay equivalents for what you’d pay discount [or estimated with a *] and then I’ll shave off a good percentage more so you’re getting a bargain. I’ll even include the cost of postage in these prices!

Ultimately though these are his miniatures and he’s selling up to pump more into his PS4 habit so I’m trying to get a decent return for him but I accept some are built and painted badly but they can be stripped easily. Have a look what there is, oh and the foam trays won’t be included as I’m buying the two carry cases off him:

Most of the marines as a group, separate images to follow

Decals included, some Space Wolves too.

Space Marines	GW	3rd
Venerable Dreadnought	£28	£21
AoBR Dreadnought	£28	£12
Terminator Chaplain (Metal)	£13	£9
AoBR Tactical Squad	£25	£10
AoBR Commander	£10	£4
AoBR terminator Squad (5 men)	£28	£13*
Scout Squad (5 men)	£15.50	£11
Assault Squad (5 men)	£20.50	£15
Command Squad (5 men)	£20.50	£15
Terminator Squad (5 men)	£28	£21
Predator Tank	£35	£26
Razorback (mint in box)	£25	£18
Attack Bike	£16.50	£12
Techmarine and 4 Servitors (finecast)	£25.50	£19
TOTAL	£318.5	£206

So a discount price of £206, but I’m looking for £150, less than half it’s retail value!

Close up pictures of the above tray…

Two broken rotors, no rotors and two broken rotors. These Deffkoptas fly by luck alone!

Orks	GW	3rd
36 x Ork Boyz [some AoBR]	£64.8	£60.75
5 x Ork Kommandos [metal]	£25.5	£25.5*
1 x AoBR Ork Warboss	£7*	£7
9 x Ork Mobs with Big Shootas/Lootas	£24	£24
9 x Ork Big Nobz	£27.9	£4
3 x AoBR Deffkoptas [broken or missing rotors]	£10*	£10*
3 x Killa Kans	£28	£21
1 Ork Trukk	£22.5	£17
TOTAL	£210	£169.25

Again I’m looking for less than half retail at £100.

These Kroot images may be a bit mixed up but check the table for what’s on offer.

Tau	GW	3rd
28 x Kroot [12 unpainted + 16 on sprue]	£40	£27.50*
36 x Fire Warriors	£66	£49.5
3 x X25 Stealth Suits	£16	£12
1 x XV8 Battlesuit	£15.50	£10*
8 x Drones	£13	£9*
1 x Devilfish [Mint in box]	£22.50	£16.88
1 x Devilfish [built and painted, badly]	£22.50	£16.88
TOTAL	£195.5	£141.76

Once again, £90 all in, way less than half retail and £50 off the discount options

I’ve also got a box of Warhammer Lizardmen Saurus Warriors. These are practically mint in box so I’m after £15, including postage which is the same as you’d pay from Wayland, but you’d have to add postage on top.

So if you’re interested drop me a comment below. No doubt I’ll get comments for just bits instead of the four lots, in which case I will consider these options with a smaller saving on the 3rd party retail price, i.e. a Devilfish for £15 but the multiple postage will be a pain, hence why I’m trying to sell in bulk and just get them sold and out of my house.

Ebay sales you won’t regret* – a Frakkin 40k Warlord Titan!!! Holy Omnissiah!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/40K-Warlord-Titan-Scratch-built-3ft-tall-/251453520684?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3a8bcc3b2c

* When I say you won’t regret buying my mate Liam’s scratchbuilt Warlord Titan, you may do when you’re otherwise mild mannered hobby widow see’s it turn – up there is no hiding this 3 foot tall behemoth, as evidenced in the pictures from our Apocalypse WOW battle: Prelude | Turn 1 | Turn 2 | Turn 3 | Turns 4, 5 and 6 |

There have been quite a few legendary scratchbuilds of the Warlord Titan but I think this is one of the most Epic I’ve ever seen. In some respects it’s actually bigger than a Warlord should be, scale wise, and approaches Imperator scale! Anyone who’s ever wanted one and has the finances needs to check it out right now. Starting price is £300 but that is less than a Warhound Titan including it’s arms and considerably less than a Reaver Titan [body only] and this thing is HUGE, check it out next to Liam’s son! Not to mention his scratchbuilt Warhound, which is I believe actually a little bit bigger than the Forgeworld version!

Seriously this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to get an amazing model and with the way GW is going we’ll be seeing a 40k scale version of Adeptus Titanicus any week now, rules in White Dwarf 😉 If you want to see more pictures and the Work in Progress shots head over to Liam’s Blog at Blue Warp Studios for more. Even if you’re not interested in the Titan yourself, and have a blog please share it or re-blog it on your own blog or forums that you frequent, there are only 9 days left in the auction. This is an amazing piece, deserves a good home and we want to see Liam get a decent price for all the effort, blood, sweat and tears so please let as many folk know as you can. Whatever he gets will be invested back into the hobby so whatever final price it is rest assured there will be all kinds of crazy cool awesomness coming out of Blue Warp Studios thanks to the lucky winners contribution to Liam’s hobby fund. Incidentally I believe he’ll be getting rid of his Fortress or Redemption too, so keep your eyes peeled to his ebay listing should the Warlord be too rich for your blood.

More of Liam’s Tau

Now it seems the ebay post for my mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame, regarding his Tau was very popular, can’t think why, Tau haven’t been given any love by GW for years so no one likes them, right? Anyway these are some more pics he’s sent over, I’m not sure if they’re all going on ebay or just some of them but best keep an eye on his auctions if the Greater Good is your bag.

These pics are as-is so they’re quite big when you click on them so enjoy.

ebay sales YOU won’t regret! Liam’s Tau…

My mate Liam, he of the scratch built Warhound and Warlord fame, is  having a clear out of old TAU figures on ebay NOW! He’s hoping to offload these Tau so he can go out and buy NEW Tau. He apologetically described these as ‘speed painted’ but Liam’s speed painting can be considered well above your average table-top quality but more importantly is the selection of unique and scratch built models. Check ’em out there are still five days to go.

40k Tau Remora Drone controlled Stealth Fighter Scratch

40k Tau 4 x Kroot Great Knarloc Herd Scratch Built

40k 3 x Converted Tau XV88 Broadside Battlesuits OOP

40k Tau 3 x Kroot Great Knarloc Bolt Thrower ScratchBlt

40k 11 x Tau Empire Vespid Stingwings METAL

40k 3 x Tau XV88 Broadside Battlesuits OOP

40k Forge World Tau XV-9-04 with Phased Ion Guns

‘nids part 62 – Oh did I not show you these n’all

Back when I was making the Tyranid Warrior – Hive Guard conversions, primarily out of a mixed goody bag of ‘nid bits I needed a couple more Termagant heads and in true fashion won another mix of Hormagaunts and Termagants auction on ebay. Not sure how much this was in the end but it was probably better value than the five Termagants in a box you can get. Despite my love of Hormagaunts and their unwillingness to do anything other than get shot and fail to live up to their potential I decided to convert them to leaping Termagants. With two Tervigons now I need more spawnage, just in case. So with my extra fleshborers I knocked them up and also added Adrenal Glands so that they stand out even more as a unit. I’ve really started to notice how difficult it is to keep track of spawned units in 6th, so some ease of identification is helpful.

Of course Hormagaunts are some of THE most unstable miniatures ever created and if you place a gun in their hands, well lets say gravity takes an even greater interest in their face! I’m really going to have to start putting some weight on the back of these.

There were ten extra Termagants in this set.

Of which four are based on Hormagaunt bodies with a fifth head on a Termagant, they really do break up the lines of the gant swarm, a little more vertical motion makes them look like they’re jostling for position.

I also had another five vanilla Termagants to add to the previous five – 20 in total from these few ebay auctions.

I’ve run the maths though and I’m not sure I’ll ever need them all though. Currently I can use the second set of Devgaunts as spawned gaunts to help wit hsquad differentiation and so on average I should have enough. Only in exceptional circumstances should both Tervigons continue to spawn after turn 3, which invariably they do not will it be an issure and that’s not taking into account that often they die and I get to recycle them into new units anyway.

So, another 15 to paint, and they weren’t even on my list, *sigh*!

‘nids part 40 – Yet more ebay Warriors

During my recent ebay splurge, I say recent it’s about three months back now. I got another 5 Warriors. I think the bargain price in the end was about £11 all in. It was two auctions and the seller kindly combined postage, which was nice considering they hadn’t offered it and I got them all for such a steal. Anyway, the plan is to create another 2 Hive Guard and as you can see there are plenty of the required components attached to these to get me the result I need.

I’ve also got some of the remaining bits from my nieghbour and car-share buddy Mark. I was also looking to try and create a Tyrant guard with the remaining crushing claw components and some of the Mawloc Scything Talons, however initial dry fits are proving problematic in fitting the model on a 40mm base. There’s just not enough room to fit everything in. I’ve seen one example on the internet of a Warrior-Tyrant guard conversion with the claws but I’m pretty sure it sits on a 60mm base which is ludicrous. I may look to see if I can get something a little bigger – 45 or 50mm wooden discs if they’re available from my local craft shop. Otherwise some extra bits of slate my add more surface area whilst retaing the official base size. If this is no joy then I’ll have to abandon the conversion.

Of course if I have the Hive Guard and Tyrant Guard I’m left with two Warriors, so no Shrike unit. I may definitely do another Deathspitter Warrior to join my existing unit, way we can have three Deathspitters, 2 and 1 Barbed Strangler or 3 and the Strangler. Options ar eextremely useful.