March Painting Pledge - Chaos Space Marines - Completed!

Morning folks!

At the start of this month I set myself the goal to try and finish off my Chaos Marines from Dark Vengeance, to try and piggyback on my enthusiasm for the Chaos Daemons codex. Considering I didn't get any painting done for 2 weeks in the middle of the month AND over-ran on my Dark Angels last month, I've managed to scrape through and get them done.

After my previous posts where I fretted about what scheme to paint them up as, I eventually conceded on Word Bearers to tie in with my cultist and Daemon emphasis - and partly because I was fed up of black armour after painting my Ravenwing.

I didn't post much progress through the month as I was painting them as 1 singular batch, where one night I'd do the metal work, next I'd start on the armour, etc. and it's been really slow going through the month. But they're done, wooooo!

Chaos Lord. Chose to keep the cape black and use gold as sparingly as possible to pick out key details. Chance are he'll never get used much since I don't like Chaos Lords much.

Chosen with Lightning Claws. Or "Bane" as I like to call him.

AND MY AXE! This guy was a bit weird to paint since he's got like a tongue-tube respirator thing, so I wasn't sure what to paint that as, so I left it as a cable.

Chosen Champion, he looks pretty cool as a Word Bearer character if I were to have swapped the helmet in his arms for a book or something. Also just noticed on this picture he's got a massive grey smudge on his boots.

Chosen with Bolters. I would like more of these figs to flesh out the unit with some stuff that's not so bloody expensive in points!

This guy is one of my favourite chosen models, I really like the pose and everything about him.

Mr Hellbrute. I chose to paint all his pipey areas and under armour as flesh, rather than the GW way, mostly as I see him as a giant Obliterator or a massive mutated Chaos Marine.

Close up shot of one of my Cultists. I've painted these guys in the same colours that my Manutian Imperial Guard are (grey fatigues, black armour) and then picked out details in red and silver to match the Word Bearers element of the army. I really love these models.

Group shot of all the Cultists. I didn't have the patience to take a picture of all of them in smaller groups since as it was early morning, the lighting was all over the place.

Group shot of this month's painting pledge. Time to play "SPOT THE FALLEN"!

So overall, this month was a bit challenging mostly down to the amount of fiddly horrible detail on Chaos models which meant it was a right chore for speed painting. Plus, the fact I stuck to my guns of painting the lot as one batch, rather than doing individual units.

However, after finishing it and doing this writeup, I'm kinda glad I got to paint these as they're really cool models. They might not get much gaming time (if ever) but they were really enjoyable to paint up.

Paint:

• 1 Chaos Lord
• 6 Chosen Chaos Marines
• 20 Cultists
• 1 Hellbrute

 Buy:

• Chaos Daemons Codex and Psychic Cards
• 20 Bloodletters 

Right, that's all for this month folks. Next month's pledge will be set at some point next week and hopefully I can make some early progress on it over the bank holiday weekend.

Bye for now!
SB

Post-game Thoughts: 1500 Dark Angels v Tau Empire

Hello folks!

Couldn't be fussed doing a blog yesterday morning as post-gaming night's sleep was really bad and I was still only half awake until about 5 o clock in the afternoon.

So! Monday night, myself and Angryman gave the Tau Empire a final send off before their new Codex drops in this (or next) weekend.

I made some slight changes to my list from the last game I played, but I'm still not sure exactly what to make of it all. Playing v Daemons 1 week, then Tau the next is a hard gauge on usefulness.

Dark Angels

• Belial (Sword and storm bolter)
• Librarian (Psyker lvl 2, Auspex, Infavisor)
• 1 Deathwing Dread (Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod)
• 5 Deathwing Termis (3 Storm Bolter and Fist, 1 Assault Cannon and Fist, 1 Storm Bolter and Sword)
• 5 Deathwing Termis (3 Storm Bolter and Fist, 1 Assault Cannon and Fist, 1 Storm Bolter and Sword)
• 10 Tactical Marines (Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun, Sarge with Plasma Pistol)
• 6 Ravenwing Bikers (2 Plasma Guns, Vet Sarge)
• 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile, Hull Multi Melta)
• 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile, Hull Multi Melta)

Tau Empire (all with various upgrades I can't remember)

• Crisis HQ with Plasma, Smart Missile w/ Drones
• Crisis Squad with Plasmas and Smart Missile w/ Drones
• Crisis Squad with Plasmas and Smart Missile w/ Drones
• 10 Man Fire Warrior Squad
• 10 Man Fire Warrior Squad
• 10 Man Fire Warrior Squad
•  3 Man Broadside Squad w/ Drones
• 2 Hammerhead Tanks with Railguns

Mission was Kill Points and the short edge deployment (so playing the 6ft length).

I won the roll off for deployment and chose to go first and actually remembered my Scout move on the Ravenwing bikers this time! Which let them push up the field a bit more, which was handy since we were playing the long board deployment and I was up against a gunline.

I also managed to remember how to deploy my Deathwing in this edition! Hurray! I wrote it down on a scrap of paper and put it under a box until the turn I was deploying on.

Unfortunately for me, the Tau managed to sieze the initiative, but I think now it was probably a good thing as if I'd dropped my Terminators on turn 1, they'd have been battered for an extra turn. Whereas now, all that could be shot were my Tactical marines and Librarian and even then only by Broadsides.

I won't go through the game turn by turn as I'm short on time, all I will say is that it was a really ace game which had 1 turn of absolute and utter carnage where I had my bikers, terminator squad, Belial and both land speeders killed in a turn, whereas the Tau lost the remainder of a crisis suit squad, a hammer head and a Broadside squadron.

The game finished on Turn 4 due to the time, as a 7-7 draw:

Dark Angels:

• First Blood (Crisis suit squadron)
• Linebreaker (Deathwing Termis)
• Hammerhead
• Hammerhead
• Broadsides
• Crisis Squad
• Fire Warrior Squad

Tau:

• Slay the Warlord
• Belial
• 1 DW Terminator Squad
• RW Bikers
• Land Speeder
• Land Speeder
• Drop Pod

It was only prevented being a 8-7 win for the Tau thanks to my Dread passing a cover save on his rear armour.

Some interesting bits that went on through the game, and more "I need to remember next time!" bits...

• Drop-Dread failing to do anything to a Hammerhead he was 1" away from, TWICE, with a Multi-Melta. I think he managed to take 1 hull point off it.
• Me completely forgetting that I use Belial in 6th edition with the Sword of Silence, rather than a Thunder hammer. I split him off from the last remaining DW Termi in his unit so they could both hunt a Hammerhead each. DW Termi battered it, then when it was Belial's go, I remember he only had the power sword. DOH.
• Tau overwatch is nasty, and it's only going to get nastier if the rumours are true for this new book. My bikes got tore up by the Crisis suits on overwatch and S5 on the Firewarrior guns means a bike doesn't count for all that much.
•  If you have a squad that has 24" guns (my Tactical marines), don't deploy them in a corner building on the long deployment. They did absolutely nothing apart from be a meat shield once for the Librarian.
• I managed to get 2 psychic powers off in the game, 1 let me fire the Tau crisis commander's guns as if he were my own unit (so back armour shots at a nearby Hammerhead!) and the other forced the same unit to take a morale check and remove fearless, but that was a last ditch attempt to get them to run away.
• Lastly. Belial's "I don't scatter when deep striking" special rule is awesome. It allowed me to drop him down so that the Crisis commander was the closest model to me, as opposed to crones or battlesuit bodyguards... it didn't work out (only 1 wound off him thanks to look out sir) but still, it's good to do that. I only wish his Teleport Homer could work on the turn he deep strikes down!

So yeah, overall it was a really fun game and I'm enjoying playing a mixed Dark Angels force, rather than pure Deathwing as I did in 5th edition. I would really like to get a full Ravenwing force on the table though (I've done a list I'll post up soon) in the near future with lots of bikes. The only issue is the cost of the extra units in £, since bikes are quite easy to come by.

That's all for now though folks! Goodbye to the 4th ed Tau Empire book, long live the 6th ed Tau Empire book! (Unless you don't own a Tau army, in which case you must, by law, hate Tau with a passion).

SB

1500pts Dark Angels v Chaos Daemons - New Codex Battle!

Morning folks.

Monday night myself and Sanguinius took part in a battle of the new Codexes between my Dark Angels and his Daemons of Slaanesh. We both had new books we wanted to try out and out of curiosity, to see how bad things were with the Daemon Warpstorm tables.

So, the lists stacked up something like this:

Dark Angels

• Belial (sword and storm bolter)
• Librarian (Terminator armour, Psyker lvl 2)
• 1 Deathwing Dread (Multi-Melta, Heavy Flamer, Drop Pod)
• 5 Deathwing Termis (3 Storm Bolter and Fist, 1 Assault Cannon and Fist, 1 Storm Bolter and Sword)
• 5 Deathwing Termis (3 Storm Bolter and Fist, 1 Assault Cannon and Fist, 1 Storm Bolter and Sword)
• 10 Tactical Marines (Plasma Cannon, Plasma Gun, Vet Sarge with Plasma Pistol)
• 5 Ravenwing Bikers (2 Plasma Guns, Vet Sarge)
• 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile, Hull Multi Melta)
• 1 Ravenwing Land Speeder (Typhoon Missile, Hull Multi Melta)

 Slaanesh Daemons

• Keeper of Secrets
• 3 Squads of 10 Daemonettes
• 2 Squads of 15 Seekers (was it 15?)
• 3 Squads of 4 Fiends
• Slaanesh Chariot-thing.
• (Probably some more stuff too that I've forgotten)

The mission was to claim Daemonic elements of unknown power (the Scouring) setting up the battlefield in Dawn of War. In a twist, we played Scouring where we didn't reveal the points of each objective until after the game had been decided.

I kept my Deathwing units off the table, hoping they could get a bit further across the board or drop in and get to objectives that were a bit further way. But, being the complete and utter fool I am, completely forgot about Scout moves on the Ravenwing bikers and then also forgot to decide what turn my Deathwing were showing up, so I rolled 1-3 turn 1, 4 - 6 turn 2 and they were destined for turn 2.

As for the Daemons and this dreaded "There's so much stuff to roll for!" whine that's being going around. Considering it was the very first time we've used the Codex, it took all of 5 minutes. Each Sergeant in the Daemonette and Seeker squads had a lesser gift, the Chariot driver had a gift too and the Keeper of Secrets took one. All in all, few minutes rolling and writing down, then done. It only took that long because we couldn't remember what certain weapons and special rulesdid when rolled for (lash of slaanesh).

Turn 1 went to the Daemons, being an objectives game I fancied going second. Big mistake. Daemon horde blitzed over the table thanks to the Daemon of Slaanesh rule, which meant they were all up in my face to deal with on Turn 1.

First Warpstorm roll was the Nurgle one, which as there were no Daemons of Nurgle in the Daemon army, meant only I was affected. Roll for each unit, on a 6 they take a S4 blast hit. Only thing that got hit was a Land Speeder, and wouldn't you know it, rolled a 6 again for a glancing hit.

In my turn, my Drop Pod and Dreadnaught came down near the Slaanesh home objective, managed to flame 2 of them away, but the rest became pretty angry. Land Speeder shooting was pretty ineffective, but the bikes and Tactical squad managed to chip away at the Fiends nearby.

Turn 2 for the Daemons and they were into assault. All the reserves showed up thanks to Instruments in the units, and they all dropped within range of the Keeper of Secrets with his Warlord trait teleport homer thing he rolled for. That meant that pretty much the entire Slaanesh force was heading towards my Tac Marines and Ravenwing Bikes.

Warpstorm time and this time it was the one where a random Daemon character is determined and then has to take a Daemonic Instability test on 3D6. One of the Seeker sergeants bit the dust as a result.

Then the rest of the force went after my Ravenwing Bikes, a unit of fiends and the Chariot chasing them down, 1 made it through to fight in the next round. My Landspeeders and Dread got glanced to death pretty quick from a load of Rending hits.

Turn 2 for the Dark Angels and Belial shows up with his Deathwing bodyguard, hoping to harass the back objective where my Dreadnaught was battered. The Librarian and his Deathwing head over on the right flank to deal with some fiends and Daemon-free objectives over there.

Split fire and Vengeful strike was pretty cool to use here,  along with Malediction from the Librarian (although I completely forgot it later on). But I didn't manage to do any real damage.

Turn 3 for the Daemons and the Seekers and Keeper of Secrets turned to deal with the new threat of Belial and his Deathwing. The Fiends on the far side of the battlefield went hunting down the Librarian and his Deathwing instead, which is where the new Daemonic lack of Eternal Warrior and new Instability came into effect.

Warpstorm this time brought about -1 Invulnerable saves for the Daemons, which was pretty handy for me.

As far as assault goes, Belial's unit got whittled down a ton, but Belial remained standing, ready for another round. A few Daemonettes and Seekers got killed, but the entirity of the Terminators were wiped out.

In the other Assault, my Librarian had cast Malediction on the Fiends who charged in, I completely forgot but it didn't make much difference. I think I lost a Terminator, but in reply the power fists battered the entire Fiend unit.

Turn 4 for the Daemons and it was pretty much consolidate towards objectives. Belial still had a Daemon circle around him so no one else was getting in. The Librarian and his terminators were safe on the flank.

Warpstorm time and this time it was the "choose a random enemy Psyker..." which meant my Librarian, as the only Psyker, failed his 3D6 LD test by rolling a 15. Then he was replaced by a Slaanesh herald which buggered off near an objective to become a denial unit.

Assault time and Belial offered a challenge out to the units, no takers, which meant he then got swamped by the remaining Daemonettes, falling down to 1 wound.

Turn 4 for the Dark Angels and not much to do, other than try and capture the objective with the Librarian-less Terminator unit, by sweeping the newly spawned Herald off it.

Belial was finally pulled down by the weight of Daemons around him failing pretty much all of his Inv saves from the rending.

//----------//

We ended it on Turn 4 as I didn't have much left that could do anything, and with all the faffing around between 2 new Codexes, we'd over-ran on time.

It finished about 10 - 4 to the Slaanesh Daemons who had multiple objectives, Slay the Warlord, First Blood and Linebreaker, whereas I managed to cap the 4pt objective.

All in all, the new Daemons are really fun to use, Slaanesh stuff is EXTREMELY fast and Rending is icing on the cake the fact that pretty much any wounds through me are ignoring my armour saves is nasty. Combine it with Psychic powers, not having to stand around waiting the turn after you deep strike in anymore (since you can deploy on the board) and they're really cool.

Warpstorm wasn't as horrendous as it was made out to be - although losing my Librarian to a random roll was a bit meh, but oh well... And it does really help if you go Mono-God as you can roll results that don't affect you but can still affect an opponent.

As for the Dark Angels, if I had remembered half the special rules and brought them on when I was supposed to, I probably would have done better (lets face it, it can't have gotten much worse?) but that's new Codex syndrome for you. Give it 3 or 4 games and I'll be alright.

Deathwing now are lovely. Split fire really helps with some situations, as does Vengeful strike (twin linking on landing). I'm thinking I may swap some of the Storm Bolters for Storm Shields at the front however, just to start taking wounds on.

My Librarian didn't get much chance to do anything with his powers so I can't really comment on it. Whatever spell he had where the enemy unit cast on it has to re-roll 6s to hit and to wound, would have really helped to stop the amount of Rending getting through.

All in all, a really good game v two new Codexes and I'm excited to see a grudge match with my Khorne Daemons v Slaanesh Daemons to have two of us go head to head with Hatred on the go.

Bye for now!

Units you hate to play against, but love using?

Morning folks.

On the drive into work this morning I was listening to 40KUK's latest podcast, specifically the section they have called "Operation: Codex" where this week they went through Tyranids.

Now, most of the comments were about the usual "competitive" list building for Tyranids, i.e. Tervigons, Swarmlord, The Doom of Malan'tai and Trygons which made me think about how I'm building my fledgling Tyranid force.

Not so much from the point of view that "I must have these to be competitive" but more "I really hate playing against these units, how can I be such a horrible person to force them on my opponents?".

For example, I've been playing a LOT of Chivalry: Medieval Warfare on Steam recently. For those who aren't aware of it, it's a "first person slasher" with Knights, Men at Arms, Archers, Trebuchets, Warhammers... the lot.

Now. In that game, the Archer class gets a lot of people annoyed, very quickly, especially if there's a lot of them on one team as it forces players to either have to all go as counter-Archers or swap to heavy Knights with large shields who are slow moving.

In a game that is based around a really ace melee combat system, there's nothing more irritating than getting sniped by a crossbow.... HOWEVER.... when you're playing as an Archer, it's immensely satisfying to be murdering people from afar with the bow.

I really enjoy playing as the Archer in the game, however, I find myself after a while starting to feel the frustration others may have when playing against me and a few other Archers on a team.

Which handily leads me into.....

What units in 40K do you HATE to play against, but what do you / would you use in your own lists?

Doom of Malan'tai

• This guy burned me so many times in 5th edition that I would get the red mist whenever he dropped in and forget the rest of the Nids and just attack him. 
• Flipside is, I can see the merits of using him in exactly that way. A persistent threat dropped behind enemy lines that can do damage in both player turns.

Tervigons

• Again, these guys are mega frustrating to play against. They're scoring (99% of the time), very tough, cast Psychic powers and can spawn more blokes who they can then buff up. Annoying yeah?
• From the Tyranid player point of view, these are invaluable objective holders / objective grabber spawners.

Nob Bikers

• Not so much nowadays, but in 4th and early 5th edition, these guys were everywhere and nigh unstoppable once tooled up. Warboss made them scoring, FNP on them, invulnerable save, cover save permanently, etc. etc.
• I used these guys in pretty much every main Ork list that I took for a few years until I started messing around with other styles of list (Trukk Boyz heavy, Kan Wall, etc.). I know how much they can annoy opponents at times when they'd pump everything into them and maybe 1 would fall down as a result.

Long Fangs

• These guys sit at the back of the board with heavy weapons (normally missiles), can split fire to hit more targets and can also handle themself quite well in close combat. Irritating yeah?
• I do the exact same thing (but usually twice as many) with my Imperial Guard heavy weapons teams. They're not as durable, but there's more of them and split into different squads. Everyone likes to have a backfield holding unit that can do some long-range fire.

Tau Battlesuits

• In 4th edition these used to absolutely infuriate me with their jump-shoot-jump shenanigans when they were present at a lot of events and used regularly. With the new Codex, this flea circus will be back again for more of the sorts.
• From my point of view though, they're like extremely mobile Terminators, I love the look of them floating around a force of Fire Warriors and they also look fun to paint.

Helldrakes

• These guys were the bane of my existence for the last few games and at our inter-club Tournament a few weeks ago. They'd smash up a flyer / unit, then over the top and Baleflamer another unit, hoovering stuff off the board.
• However, why would you not want a flying unit that can have a flamer that can fire 360, at distance, and sweep stuff off the board?

That's about all I can think of for now but what about you guys? What are some of the units in your armies that you like to use, but have played against them and found them horrible to deal with or give you the red mist?

Choosing Paint Schemes

Morning all.

This month I've set myself the task of painting up my Chaos Space Marines from the Dark Vengeance boxset. However, I've set myself this task and not really decided on a colour scheme for the army which is inevitably going to hold me back until I do decide - just like last month when I faffed about trying to decide which green to use for my loyalist Dark Angels.

The intention is, I'm going to list a few schemes and images here to try and get a decision made by the end of the post and make a start on painting them tonight.

Option #1 - Black Legion

At the moment I have a converted Abaddon painted up in Black Legion colours, along with a Daemon Prince in BL armour which would be both HQ slots filled up with BL oriented characters.

The paint scheme is also different enough from my other armies to stand out and be a bit different for me to paint. I don't currently have any armies that are black armoured, with the exception of Ravenwing elements of my Dark Angels.

I also want to stray away from too many specialised elements of the Chaos army like the cult or marked troops. I don't generally like mixing and matching, but Black Legion would give me the option to add a few Khorne related bits in to go with the Daemons.

Pros:

• Get to use existing models from my collection.
• Open to expanding to God-specific units due to nature of Black Legion.

Cons:

• Black armour isn't any quicker to paint, as I have to repaint it after everything else to get a clean coat from stray paint elsewhere.
• Bit of a boring paint scheme compared to other Chaos Legions. And I HATE painting Gold. Can never seem to get a decent coat.
• To me, doesn't really suit using Cultists.

Option #2 - Alpha Legion

I like the idea of the Alpha Legion and an emphasis on Cultists and seeing the Alpha Legion marines as more in a Chosen / Veteran role. However, I can't really imagine the Alpha Legion using some of the things I would like to - such as Forgefiends, Terminators and Raptors, nor would I have much use for Abaddon and my Daemon Prince.

I really enjoyed the Horus Heresy book with Alpharius in (I'm guessing it was Legion) and all their shrouded secrecy which is what draws me in a bit, but I think I'm more smitten with the background than I am with the thoughts of them as an army.

Pros:

• Emphasis on Cultists with options for leading my Guardsmen as Traitors.
• Uses what I have from Dark Vengeance pretty well.

Cons:

• Colour scheme is pretty similar to my Dark Eldar army.
• Outside of Cultists, Chosen and normal Marines, I find it hard to theme towards Alpha Legion.

 Option #3 - Word Bearers

These were my original go-to choice for the Chaos Marines and how my older Chaos Marine army started getting painted before I got fed up of painting red.

They work with what I have (cultists, emphasis on Daemons, chosen marines) and would be similar in paint scheme to the actual Dark Vengeance models.

The use of Daemons also ties in with my plans for them being allies of a main Daemonic force, but not tying me down to specific Gods, so I could take the Word Bearers with Khorne Daemons one week with the marines as an allied detachment, then the next as a primary detatchment using Tzeentch Daemons as allies. They're pretty flexible in what they can do.

Pros:

• Emphasis on Daemons.
• Uses Dark Vengeance bits well.
• Paint scheme would look good and tie in with my Khornate Daemons.
• Allows me to use pretty much any non-God specific Marine units without an issue.

Cons:

• More red to paint, similar to an existing army.

Option #4 - Fallen Dark Angels

Now, this is the one from out of nowhere. I originally had a thought that since I already had lots of Dark Angels stuff, I would convert the Dark Vengeance DA bits into Fallen Dark Angels, to be lead by their Dark Apostle, the one and only Mr Cypher.

The more I think about this, the more tempted I am... However... looking at the paint schemes for them, they're very similar to Black Legion as it is. As well as this, the models I currently own for the Chaos stuff, don't look very Dark Angels related, so they'd just look like a bunch of Chaos Marines painted black as well as some very loyalist looking Dark Angels that have a darker green armour.

It can work, but I don't think it would work well with Chaos Daemon allies. Personally, I've always been a believer that Lion El'Jonson was the traitor and not Luthor. So the way I see it, the Fallen are actually the true loyalist Dark Angels from that time period. Some may have been swayed by Chaos during the Warpstorm and become mutated, or even falsely portraying themselves as the Fallen. But in my mind, Fallen wouldn't ally themselves with Daemons.

However, I can remember reading a story in one of the Codexes about Fallen DA taking over planets as Governors or champions but never revealing their identity as a Fallen DA. Maybe my Chaos Lord is one such type.

Pros:

• Cypher. Cypher. Cypher.
• Gives my actual Dark Angels a proper foe.

Cons:

• I would want to paint them very Dark Green, similar to Cypher, but Fallen artwork shows them in black armour which again, makes them look very Black Legion.
• I would have to inject Dark Angel visual style into the army somehow.
• It'd lock me out of using Forgefiends and other more Chaos-y units.

So those are my options when it comes to schemes. I'm going to try and decide properly on the drive home tonight and make a start with whichever I choose later on.

That's all for now folks!

March Painting Pledge - Chaos Space Marines

Morning all!

So I've over-run a bit into March already but I'm hoping I can claw the time back over the space of the month. Anyway...

This month I was a bit unsure what to go with and had two options - a load of Eldar vehicles and weapons or Dark Vengeance Chaos Marines. I figured I would try and get the Chaos stuff out of the way to coincide with the release of the Chaos Daemon Codex and have Chaos themed month.

Last night I packed away the Dark Angels bits I had painted up and dragged the Chaos stuff out of the box it was in.

I'm still not quite sure what legion to paint them up as, although I've got an Abaddon conversion somewhere in Black Legion paintscheme, along with a Khornate Daemon army to ally alongside them so that muddies the water a bit.

These are the ideas I've got for paint schemes anywho (and bit of a "why I'm reluctant" on each):

• Black Legion - I've got Abaddon already done, severed heads on my Deathwing bases are Black Legion, and the Daemon Prince from my Daemon army has black legion armour. It's not too much of a stretch to have BL elements in the army if they're renegades though.

• Alpha Legion - I like the idea of Cultists. I'm not too keen on a Turquoise scheme as I think it's a bit similar to my Dark Eldar army. Plus, I can't imagine Alpha Legion using certain aspects I like of the Chaos Marines - such as Forgefiends, Terminators and Raptors. They probably do use them, but to me they're not units I'd associate with Alpha Legion.

• Fallen Dark Angels - Idea behind this they'd be the Darker Green colour I used for Cypher and lead by him as a Dark Apostle. Only problem is it's more green... Although it'd make for some cool conversions.

• Word Bearers - They're allying in with a Daemon army, so it'd make the most sense for summoning lots of Daemons yeah? Again my only issue with this is the similarity to painting lots of red Khorne Daemons. Although it would tie them together visually and other than my Daemons, I don't have a red themed army.

There's plenty more scope for Custom schemes and everything else, but I'd like it to tie in with Daemons and the possibility of being lead by Abaddon.

Right, so that's that sorted... Onto this month's hobby pledge!:

Paint:

• 1 Chaos Lord
• 6 Chosen Chaos Marines
• 20 Cultists
• 1 Hellbrute

 Buy:

• Chaos Daemons Codex and Psychic Cards
• Bloodletters

 I still need to buy the actual Chaos Space Marines codex, but I figured that can be for another time once I've painted the army up and looking to where I can expand.

That's all for now folks... Let's see what I can get done and try and decide on a paint scheme pretty sharpish!

SB

February Painting Pledge - Overdue... but complete!

Morning folks.

After dragging my heels a bit the last few weeks with painting, I tried to make a final push towards the end of the month to finish off my Dark Angels. I was away for some time over the weekend but managed to get the majority of the Deathwing done over Friday night / Saturday morning and then finished the bases off this morning.

So, I've eaten into March by 5 days, but all my (current) Dark Angels are finished. I've plans for adding a Plasma Cannon Devastator squad in soon but that can wait for a bit.

I think the Dark Vengeance terminators are cracking models, lots of little intricate detail and it's tempting me to get more in the future to split the parts between different squads and give me more ranged fire.

• Paint 10 Dark Angels Tactical Marines
• Paint 5 Deathwing Terminators
• Paint 3 Ravenwing Bikers
• Paint Dark Angel Chaplain
• Paint Dark Angel Captain
• Paint Dark Angel Librarian
• Paint Cypher
• Buy the Dark Angels Codex

That's all for now, but I'll be posting up my March pledge tomorrow and see where we're heading from there.

Cheers!
SB

February Painting Pledge - Librarian Complete

Morning folks.

I've had a lothargic middle of the month when it comes to painting. The hope was (a few weeks ago) to get a unit done each week and the more awkward ones over a week and a bit. However, that fell on it's face after playing in an Inter-Club tournament and needing a bit of time away from hobbying to chill afterwards.

However, last night I thought I would make one last push for my February painting pledge and got my Dark Vengeance Librarian painted up.

He's an ace model. It's just a shame that he's so intricately put together it's hard to convert him too well (although I'm sure plenty of people have).

As for painting, the only things I'm not too happy with is a bit of a sloppy wash on the back of his robe where a patch of Nuln Oil collected on a flat area. And also the chest piece robe thing, the Gold doesn't really stand out too well from the Red of the back.

Either way, he's done now and ready to start flinging mind bullets around all over the place, alongside his terminator armoured Librarian brother from phase 1 of the Deathwing in 2011.

Overall, I think I've done pretty well to get close to finishing the pledge as it was all infantry and a few fiddly characters with lots of details. On top of that, I spent days umming and aahing over what Green to use on the power armour.

• Paint 10 Dark Angels Tactical Marines
• Paint 5 Deathwing Terminators
• Paint 3 Ravenwing Bikers
• Paint Dark Angel Chaplain
• Paint Dark Angel Captain
• Paint Dark Angel Librarian
• Paint Cypher
• Buy the Dark Angels Codex

So as it's the 1st of March, the list above is incomplete, which means those 5 Deathwing are going to roll onto March's list - alongside whatever was going to be on there in the first place. So March just got a bit more crammed.

I've still not decided exactly what's going to be in March's list. The options are....

Eldar:

• 6 War Walkers
• 3 Wave Serpents
• 1 Falcon

Chaos Marines:

• Chaos Lord
• 20 Cultists
• Hellbrute
• 6 Chosen

The Chaos Marines are probably the easier option in terms of painting (and more enjoyable), but I've still absolutely no clue what colour scheme to use for them. Possibly Black Legion as I have a converted Abaddon in a box somewhere.

That's all for now! I'll post up on Monday with March's pledge.

SB