Summoning Up A Bargain

I don't go on about the Cult of Cheaphammer as much as I used to. Partly this is because I have more disposable income that I used to, but mainly its because Cheaphammer was born to combat Games Workshop's pricing practices.

Therefore, dipping my toe into 40k again is stirring my inner bargain hunter, and the contents of this post reflect that.

I've talked before about the versatility and value of the Start Collecting: Daemons of Tzeentch box, specifically the Burning Chariot kit which officially allows you to build one of the two following combinations:

• a Burning Chariot and a Changecaster;
• a Fateskimmer and an Exalted Flamer.

However, combined with spare bits from the Screamers kit and couple of extra flying stands, with my first box I put together:

• a Fluxmaster, an Exalted Flamer and two extra Screamers.

I felt rather proud of myself, but in my naivety I'd missed this...

Using the spare chariot flight stand, spare disc centrepiece, two of the three Blue Horrors and other assorted pieces, it's possible (and easy) to kitbash the Blue Scribes, a special character that retail for £25.

For nothing.

Needless to say, once I'd learned about this (it's not an original idea) I was somewhat frustrated as I'd already given the spare disc parts to a friend to use with his Thousand Sons.

Therefore, the purchase of second box saw me leaping into action to get these two into action, even though I've no idea how good they are.

When it came to painting, as ever, I kept things simple, sticking to my tried and tested combinations of drybrushing and washes. I kept things even simpler by using the Blue Horrors that I'd already painted from the first box.

However, I am fairly proud of the little bit of freehand I did on the pages of the books.

My favourite bit of the model is the cover of the largest book, which is covered in eyes and teeth and skin (done with my usual zombie formula). It does look a bit Nurgley, but I like it.

I realised afterwards that this bears a passing resemblance to a Screamer, and so I could have painted it like them...but I didn't.

The other bit of Cheaphammering came with the acquisition of a couple of back issues of Imperium and Mortal Realms, netting me a 40k crate sprue and two paints for the princely sum of just £12. I'm also very proud of myself for resisting the urge to start a Necron army with other back issues whilst in the same shop.

I've kept the smaller crates simple and gone with a generic military colour scheme suggesting this were left behind by local defence forces when they fled/died horribly/got possessed and tore their own eyes out before being sucked into the warp.

There's also a larger crate I'm still working on.

That's eight more models painted, but I actually find myself in the red for the first time in a while as I took delivery of a couple of gifts bought with vouchers in the days after Christmas.

Acquired: 20

Painted: 18

However, to counter this, I'm crossing off another box of the Hobby Bingo board as I'm counting kitbashing the Blue Scribes as converting a model from its original purpose.

I could also tick off playing a boardgame, as I played (and won) Seafarers of Catan last night, but I'm going to operate a pics or it didn't happen policy for filling the card.