Thing: The Myrmidons - Vorenus

 

 

So, I am on time with my post this week, however I am slightly behind with my work. I expected to have the legs positioned and start work on the arms but due to having to go Carpet shopping, and other house issues, I am only half way through the legs. Get ready for a picture heavy and word light post!

 

 

This is where we were up to last week, the model was sat ready to be hacked and chopped with a wealth of ideas ready to be tested. Chopped and hacked he was, I really regret using Black Reach Terminators, but, I made some headway and I hope with some Greenstuffing they will look decent by the end.

The first thing I did was slice his legs off at the knee joint, I made the effort to cut from the back halfway through so that the cut would go through the flexible joint area, to keep the aesthetics, I then cut down from the back of the raised knee pad creating a rough L cut.

 

I then drilled holes in both Shins and Thighs for the pin (paperclip) to be put it giving me easy dry runs to get the leg positioning right. 

I then straightened out one of my 100 paperclips ready to cut and use as pins...

and then I used my cutters to cut two lengths of paperclip to roughly half an inch, and then had to cut them down again and again because they were too long, but its always better to have too much and cut down than not have enough and start again.

Here you can see the pins being ready to use for their first dry run, and its obvious how the pins are too long, I cut them down a couple of millimeters at a time until I felt they were the right length.

 

I then realised that I hadn't positioned the top of the leg for a kneeling position... thankfully I hadn't glued anything yet, and spent about 20 minutes slicing through the hip joint, I had to trim the leg down on the inner thigh so that it would point straight forwards instead of at an angle. I then re-glued it into position (which put me behind a bit).

While the glue was drying I decided to try my hand at making rivets for the outside of Vorenus' Storm Shield. I pushed the drill bit right down into the pin vice leaving just the tip showing, then cut the plasticard to shape and placed it onto the un-opened blu-tack (like modelling clay). I then pushed quite hard in a set pattern (starting with each corner then at regular intivals) leaving me with indents like above...

and the front looked like this (not the best picture but I am using my phone). This gives me the basis of the storm shield, and should be easy enough to finish now. This week I will finish positioning the legs, and I hope to start work on the sword arm.

Stay tuned, and feel free to let me know any tips or tricks I might have missed.

Thing: The Myrmidons

Coming at you a fortnight and two days late!!! I havent been able to do much with Birthdays, and house moving but I did manage to buy all the parts I think I will need, and I have started chopping bits off models. I however don't have any WIP pictures yet, and will hopefully have them next week (where I hope to do an update on time).

As you can see, I have:
Metal Paperclips (these will be used to pin parts of the model (mainly legs to help get them into the right angles)
Plasticard (this will be used to create unique shields, tabards, studded leather aprons, and maybe some armour plates to beef up the models)
Blu Tack (this I will be using as "soft modelling clay" to put under the plasticard when pressing down using a pin/needle to create rivets)
Various Tools (I have a small saw, clippers, pin vice (mini drill), and a hobby knife/stanley knife)
and a Cutting Board (I got this because I always end up cutting myself or whatever I am leaning on, this also gives me a nice large space to keep things seen, and a level surface to work on)

 

 

Here is the first model I am working on, he is just a standard Black Reach Terminator, I will also be using a standard Assault Terminator Storm Shield, and a Grey Knight Terminator arm and Broadsword. What will be done with this guy is that he will be armed with Storm Shield and Frost Blade. His legs are going to be cut and repositioned so that he is kneeling forwards thrusting his sword ahead of him. His shield will be held over his head with an enemy tumbling over it, I plan to extend his shield and make it into a Roman style tower shield using plasticard, the current shield will then become the butress. I also plan my first attempt at a studden apron out of plasticard to go between his legs.

 

For next week I hope to have some pictures of this guy in bits, and started to be pinned, so that he will be in the right position. I think that this might have been easier if I had started with normal Terminators, but we have to work with what we have.

Thing: The Battle for Kramirp

So, I have a rough drawing (in paint) of the game board I plan to build, so without further ado, here it is:

The, grey patches are buildings/ruins, the brown being general rubble/craters, and the yellow will be statues. I plan to have four ruins (with tumble down walls giving a ramp up the levels), the last two buildings will either be bunkers, or home built multi-storey buildings which will come apart. The big building will be the palace, with its own canopy, pillars, and defence points, the windows will have some boarded up, and some open, with either, fire points or emplaced weapons, these will be purely aesthetic, and it will use the rules for a ruin, the back wont be covered up for easy access to models inside. The statues, will either be fully untouched (using the statues GW sell), demolished in places, fallen over (like the first bottom statues), or just a plinth remaining. I think I will also add in some Tyranid corruption the closer to the palace, maybe even having tentacles/vines wrapped around one statue. There will be general rubble and smaller craters to provide some cover in alleys, and the main street, but leaving plenty of open spaces for vehicles and a few tacticle fire lanes. The board, will be built on six 2'x2' boards, making it easier to transport and store, it also means I can focus on one section at a time rather than trying to build the odd bit here and there.

Comments and critisisms welcome. See you all next week, with hopefully, a started model.

Thing: The Myrmidons

So I promised an update today, and I know it's getting late, but I felt I had to stay focused. I haven't finished the map yet, so this will just be a short post throwing some of the ideas I have for models out there for you all to digest and throw back.

Firstly, I plan to use the Space Wolf codex as it means I can take Wolf Guard as my veteran marines, and can mix terminator armour in and out of squads, and equip each model individually. This is by no means going to be a competitive army, though I do hope for it to be more than a walk over.

I have always had the idea of Space Marines being able to just run through mortal men with ease, so I wanted my models to be almost swamped with enemies. By this I mean one or two on each base making each model into a mini-diorama, I'm hoping to try and pin these models so that they can be removed, but I'm not sure how that will go, it may leave some models in odd poses or may just be impossible with some of my ideas.

The first Myrmidon I plan to build will be based loosely off a scene from 300, it will feature the Terminator dropped onto one his lead knee (or maybe just leaning heavily forwards) turned slightly to the left lifting his shield (left hand) up over his head with either a guardsman or Genestealer on top being thrown over, while his right hand is thrust forwards with his spear impaling a guardsman. I'm hoping this will give the impression that he has been charged from the left, rolled with the weight to unbalance and throw the charger while giving himself momentum to thrust forwards from the turn. At least one model will have a Tyranid carapace as a shield, and I will probably have a few of them using improvised weapons as their bolters run out of ammo, and other weapons get stuck in dead bodies, I am thinking to have one terminator using a lasgun as a spear or mace.

For my Chapter Master Akileis (Logan counts as) I will have him wielding an axe (power fist) and a dagger (frost blade) and his storm bolter locked to his thigh (unless it looks too big). He will be locked in combat with a Tyranid Warrior wielding lash whip and Bonesword. The whip will be coiled around his axe handle which he will be pulling with drawing inside the warriors sword and his dagger will be poised to thrust into its throat. (This means if I can pin the axe head I can remove the warrior without the model looking too silly)

I also plan to have at least one rune priest, but have yet decided how to fit him into the army, I'm not sure how priestly to make him look. I may have him modelled as a point of calm in the middle of the army.

At least one Dreadnought will be stood on a Tyranid Warrior body, grabbing a leaping Genestealer out of the air. This will be one of the hardest models to make as I will be using the Black Reach Dreadnoughts, I may invest in a Venerable Dreadnought for this model just to make it really stand out.

The Road to Britcon

It's time for another "The Road to" article series (they give me a reason to post). This time it is the annual Britcon tournament which we (MAWS) regularly attends, I haven't been for about 3 years now and am itching to get back there. Britcon was my first tournament that I attended and it was a great laugh and we have always had a good time each year, this year there will be a lot less competitiveness as the ETC is at a similar time and a lot of the British team attend Britcon so hopefully I can pick up a place.

Britcon is a 3 day event in mid august with 6 games, it was originally planned to be a farewell 5th edition tournament but has been changed to a welcome 6th. From the rules pack it looks like we won't be playing the Relic scenario (but this could be an early typo), and it will now be a 1999pt tournament rather than 2000pts.

Well I will be playing my first practice game on Monday and will be taking my Necrons running something a little like this:

HQ

Zahndrehk. 185

Destroyer Lord. 125
Septermal weave. 15
Mindshackle scarab. 20
160

Royal court. 95
Harbinger of the storm w/ ether crystal

Harbinger of destruction w/ solar pulse


Elites

Triarch Stalker. 150

Troops

15 warriors. 195
Night Scythe. 100
295

15 warriors. 195

6 immortals. 102
W/ tesla

6 immortals. 102
W/ tesla

Fast attack

3 wraiths. 105
2 whip coils. 20
125

3 heavy Destroyers. 180

5 Destroyers. 200

Heavy

Monolith. 200

That should be 1989 leaving me with 10 points spare.

The Destroyer Lord will be with the Wraiths in reserve to pop through the Monolith, Zahndrehk will be with one unit of 15 warriors giving out Special Rules and taking them away. The two Crypteks will be with the Immortals just hovering around and taking pot shots.

So, what do you think? So far I have had good results with this list in 5th and a win in 6th with a 2100pt version. I take Zahndrehk as he is 5pts more than a standard overlord with the same equipment but gets so much more. I will always take the Destroyers and Monolith as they are some of my favourite Necron units. The Stalker adds so much to the army and has become a big threat to some of my local group because of its ability to make my army twin linked. I have also found units of 15 warriors are much more reliable than 10 but a unit of 2o is just a points waste, 15 are around long enough, and cheap enough to just sit around taking pot shots.

So comments welcome, will write up my first battle report after tomorrow night!

New 40K Flyers

Morning folks,

These have been floating around since lunchtime yesterday, but I thought I'd share here for people who don't check the regular / un-mobile friendly blogs and sites (and also, chime in with some witty opinions...)

Images are taken from: HERO's Gaming Blog

Space Marine Stormtalon

I know there's a lot of people who really don't like this model, and initially I was put off. Everyone disliked the Stormraven on it's reveal too. Personally though, I like both models and I especially LOVE the idea of a SM flyer gunship. I'm not sure what role it will have in comparison to the cheaper, lighter armoured Land Speeder, but we'll see.
The only downside here is according to what people have said about the rules, it will only be for Codex: Space Marines for the time being. Which means my Dark Angels army, and people at the club who have Blood Angels and Space Wolves will miss out on this for the time being.

Necron Doom Scythe / Night Scythe

This is pretty much as it is in the codex. I'm not massively keen on the "Flying Croissant" look, but that's the Necron visual style of Battlefleet Gothic ships after all. I do like the fact that it's a dual kit though, the annoyance for me with the Dark Eldar fighter is that it only gives you the Razorwing, not the Void Raven (however, this could be to do with the AV difference).

Ork Burna Bomma / Dakka Jet / Blitza Bomma

Now then, these Ork planes, I love. The only downside is that I already have 2 Fighta-Bommas made up at home so probabl won't be buying these. The upside is that I can now use my Fighta-Bomma conversions in normal games of 40K! My only hope is that they're in the Fast Attack slot, rather than Heavy Support competing with Battlewagons, Kans and Dreads.

Hopefully this is the first of many flyer additions into 40k. I loved the Valkyrie model when that came out, so much so that I bought 3, and love seeing them on the table. The rules don't really suit Flyers at the moment though, so hopefully 6th ed will add another layer onto this. But yeah - more flyers for all the races please!!

What do you guys all reckon to these? Looking forward to seeing them on the table and more coming for other races?

Over and out,
SB

Club tournament - Round 1

We have just given Paul away as a mercenary and have now been drawn against Lost Boys in the first round which will be Dawn of War Annihilation.

So for the first game, I managed to scrape a 6-5 win from a very close game that came down to who could get the kill first.

Angryman got a 12-5 win against a guard army with 3 vendettas

Mr One. Lost 4-1 against an eldar army

Sanguinius won by tabling our own Paul for a loss of none giving him a 13-0.

Mike B lost 12-3 to a beautiful Ork counts as army which was modelled as mutants. (see picture)

Mike F also got a win at 6-5 against a pristine White Scars army.

Call back shortly for round 2

Back in business - Dark Eldar, Necrons, Squats and new Eldar army!

Morning all,

Been a while since I had the time or energy to blog about anything. However, work and personal life has chilled out a bit in the last day or so. Which means here comes a blog about what I've been doing over the last few months.

Brotherhood of the Forge
Last summer I spent some pennies on a fair amount of Dwarf boxsets and bits in order to finalise my Sisters of Battle / Squat army. I posted stuff up about these a while ago: HERE

These guys are all sanded and ready to be sprayed up, along with an Immolator. But again, I've just not had the time to get them done.

Dark Eldar
From the Warboot in November I "rescued" a big horde of Dark Eldar models. I spent most of Xmas holidays high on fumes stripping the paint off of them: HERE

In the mean time, I managed to convert up some more Blasters (splinter rifles with torment grenade launcher bulbs on the end) and tidy up 3 Vypers to use as Venoms.

Necrons
As well as the Dark Eldar stuff, I had a big backlog of Necron stuff that I'd gotten for Xmas that needed to be built and sorted.

10 Immortals with Tesla Carbines, 5 Lychguard with shields, Imotekh the Stormlord, Trazyn the Infinte and a Cryptek.

After I'd done these, I had a Ghost Ark which was one of the most time consuming kits I'd done for a while. As well as a Catacomb Command Barge / Annihalation Barge which very nicely can swap between each if you don't glue stuff. And since I've not been able to paint / play with it yet, it gives me the option to choose which I prefer.

Eldar
Around the end of February, I bought the remnants of an Eldar army off another club member who has stopped playing 40k.

This has kept me busy over the last 2 months, chipping away where I can at building, repairing and converting stuff.

In all, the army consists of:
- Farseer
- 6 War Walkers
- 3 Wave Serpents
- 1 Falcon
- 20 Dire Avengers
- 6 Jetbikes

I've got a few missing bits here and there, which I'm scouring eBay to get hold of. I'm also planning on converting the Jetbikes into Dire Avenger style riders, as opposed to the really old and pants looking Guardians riding them.

The plan is also to convert another Jetbike rider into an Autarch with Power Weapon, so I've got a 2nd HQ choice and to pad out my points a bit more.

I've not done a list yet, so I don't know exactly how many points I have of the Eldar. All I know is that I'm after a unit to ride in the 3rd Wave Serpent. Fire Dragons maybe? Who knows... Eldar is still really new to me and I'm having a "I want everything" moment.

I'm also yet to decide on a colour scheme for the army. Red is a no, no because of my Khorne Daemons. Green is also bad because of Orks and Dark Angels. Blue I'm also not keen on as I want the Dire Avengers to stand out, and also it's too close to my Dark Eldar army.

At the moment, I'm thinking about a Yme-Loc craftworld, but that could be another blog post entirely!

---------------------

So that's me for now. Baby Badger is due any time now, so I'm sure just as I've escaped one thing stopping me from hobbying, I'll have another reason to neglect my plastic crack mountain.

Cheers,
SB

Toy soldier doubles 40k 2011

Angryman and I attended the above tournament this weekend, and we had some fun games and a lot of close ones.

Our first game was against a space wolf and guard combo. They had three vendettas, surprise surprise, and a smattering of troops. We had expected this sort of list so with a melta dread, an assault cannon dread and an ironclad dread all in pods, along with two units of missile long fangs, and a few other meltas lying around we thought we would have a good chance. But after shooting every weapon at two vendettas we managed to shake one of them. That is then how the rest of the game went on, we managed to scrape a draw with some late game objective grabs and contesting.

The second game was against guard and grey knights. This had only two vendettas along with two hydras and a land raider crusader. Again we thought we would be able to cope, but again we couldn't seem to do more than shake the vendettas. On turn 5 we had managed to grab a draw with some lucky positioning again, but unfortunate the game carried on until turn 7 and we were left with a solid loss.

Game three we were paired up against a couple of lads we played at the last stockport doubles tournament where we took tyranids. These two had taken tyranids then as well and had once again. We always have a good laugh with these two and after giving them a good hammering for the third time we all left in high spirits from the game parting with a few tips and tricks to try and help them out in their games ahead.

Our fourth game was once again guard and grey knights, but this time three vendettas and three "psyflemen" dreads. We knew we had to kill the vendettas first and then the dreads so that our superior range would work for us. In turn two it looked like that was going to happen. We had killed two vendettas, immobilised one, and blew up a dread. But our opponents were still one kill point ahead. By turn 5 it was a stalemate with them out of our range but still a point ahead. We tried a last ditch attempt to even out but luck was against us and we ended the game 2 kill points down.

Our last game was drawn against the Swarmlords from game three, but free much confusion we ended up against mishap impossible (sanguinius and suicide badger). We began the game just messing about as both our teams were mid-table from a couple of bad luck games. It soon heated up and it ended a lot closer than anyone expected with us winning 7kp to 5kp.

So at the end of the tourney we had a good time excluding a couple of people. Angryman will post a more in depth review along with our actual position at the end.

From the side of a maternity bed,
Col.Straken signing out!!!

Badger's Log - Hitting the Hobby Wall

Hello all,

Recently I've been finding hobbying a little difficult whilst at home. Last weekend I managed to finish painting up 3 Bloodcrushers and a Deathwing test model in pretty good time.

Spirits were high and I felt like I had the painting bug once again, that I wanted to finish all the half-started projects I had around. First up, were the rest of the Deathwing army.

At first it was pretty good going, they were already sprayed up, so on Saturday night I went over the undercoat to cover any gaps and get a proper solid coat. Then Sunday night, I drybrushed any Metal areas.

I got pretty confident, I thought to myself "It's only 25 models. I can get these done in a couple of nights or so at this rate..." and now, nearly 4 days later, all I've managed to do is paint about 3/4 of the bone armour on 1 terminator.

I feel like I've hit the wall...

When I get home, I don't feel like picking up the brushes to tackle the Terminators anymore, I've got no motivation to assemble and convert my Dwarfs into 40k models and I've yet to have a night where I've got home from work, in daylight and it not be raining, in order to spray my remaining Daemon models.

I'm in a hobbying lull at the moment where things don't seem to be going my way with painting especially. Personally, I like to go for quick paint jobs that get models on the table faster and I thought with Deathwing, that was pretty achievable. I underestimated how long the Bone armour colour takes to get on in a solid and even coating, which is what's consuming the vast majority of time.

Then we get onto assembling my Dwarfs, where I look at the stack of boxes and think to myself "I really can't be bothered hacking away at arms to make them have Bolters..." or other such excuses. I do want to get them done, so I can try out the Sisters of Battle WD codex for myself, but looking at the boxes and thinking how much assembly work there is to do, I'd rather suffer through painting Deathwing.

And lastly, the weather in Manchester over the last week has been absolutely shocking. Any time that I've been home and able to spray, it's been raining or vice-versa, anytime it's been dry enough to spray I've been away from home. I suppose the weather being rubbish helps in the fact that I'll stay in more and get painting done (or at least attempt to...).

So yeah, that's where I am at the moment - I thought I'd try and vent on here and also, ask for advice.

What do you guys do to try and get around "Hobby Block" ?

Cheers,
SB

Baby Got Back(log)

Morning folks,

As it's nearly that joyous time when we're free from work and you can be dragged around shops, do some DIY and more importantly, get some serious hobby time in, I thought I'd post up about my escalating backlog of hobby items.

Last night I sat down and started assembling some more Bloodcrushers, then remembered that I was half way through undercoating my first Deathwing squad, so I was torn between each. Then while driving to work today and thinking about what I needed to do to finish off my Bloodcrushers, I remembered that I've got 4 boxes of Dwarf models and associated bitz sat in a cardboard box, yet to be opened.

At one point, I was well up to scratch on my hobby backlog. I had just finished my Dark Eldar off, along with some Brotherhood of the Forge tanks and I was on course to get Deathwing things assembled and painted as I bought batches. Then I started to get to the end of a project at work, which meant no hobby time. To keep me motivated at work though, I was still purchasing bits, had my birthday around that time and also bought some things on the cheap from people.

Then, after I came out of the darkness that is overtime, I started to realise that I had a lot to catch up on and also, the impending deadline of a Doubles Tournament in November, that requires me to upgrade some older models to a tournament standard with new models.

So here's what is currently in the Badger-Cave looking for some attention (as far as I can remember!):

To Assemble:
- 3 Bloodcrushers
- 50ish Dwarfs to be made into an assortment of Forgers
- 1 Immolator
- 40 War of the Ring Uruk-Hai (I'd forgotten about these!)

To Spray:
- The above, plus...

- Daemon Prince

To Paint:
- The above, plus..
- 25 Deathwing Terminators
- 1 Deathwing Chaplain
- 1 Deathwing Librarian
- 1 Belial + Magnetised Arms
- 2 Multi Melta Dreadnaughts
- 2 Drop Pods
- 2 Land Speeders
- 20 Marines
- 6 Ravenwing Bikers
- 5 Bretonnian Mounted Yeomen
- 2 Bretonnian Damsels
- 8 Bretonnian Grail Knights
- 1 Grail Reliquae with 20 Battle Pilgrims
- 3 Pegasus Knights
- 10 Knights Errant

Misc:
- Wash Guard Vehicles to match the Infantry.
- Wash Necron Army to match other armies.
- Buy 2 more Daemon Princes to finish off my Khorne Daemon list.

And that's without including the other stuff I would like to buy over the next few months... I don't like having a backlog when it comes to the hobby, it's something I like to get rid of as quick as possible.

My aim for the rest of this month is to get my Daemon stuff assembled and painted, alongside the Deathwing section of my Dark Angels. From then on, the priorites are:
- Assemble my Dwarf stuff
- Finish the rest of the Dark Angels
- Make some headway with the Bretonnians, either to get playing Fantasy a bit more or to flog them on eBay.

Overall, I want to get my Dark Angels, Chaos Daemons and Brotherhood of the Forge completed by the end of the year. Any progress I can make on Fantasy / WOTR stuff is a bonus for when I get to play them.

What about you guys then? How are your backlogs looking (assuming you have one) and have you got any goals over the next weeks, months or years?

SB.

Road to Warrington

So, the Warrington GT is 15 days away and I have a 1750pt army to paint, not only that, but it is my most ambitious project to date painting wise. I plan on taking my Night Lords, I started two weeks ago with 20 Chaos Marines which were bought for me last August, I had painted one, but was unhappy with the results due to an unsteady hand.

On Monday I practiced using a list that I planned to take (the only list tampering game I would be able to play) and decided to drop my Pred (which failed misserably) for a second Vindicator, and swap around my Terminator weapons slightly, the list I ended up with goes something like this:

HQ
Chaos Lord
Daemon Weapon
Personal Icon
135

Elites
Dreadnought
Plasma cannon
105

9 Possessed
Champion
Rhino
279

5 Terminators
Reaper Autocannon
Twin LC
Power fist
Combi-flamer
Combi-melta
205

Troops
10 Chaos Marines
Plasma gun
Melta
Icon of Chaos
Champion
Power wpn
Plasma pistol
Rhino
265

10 Chaos Marines
Plasma gun
Missile launcher
Icon of Chaos
Champion
Power wpn
215

10 Chaos Marines
Melta
Heavy Bolter
Icon of Chaos
Champion
Power fist
Rhino
255

Heavy Support
Vindicator
Daemonic possession
145

Vindicator
Daemonic Possession
145

Total - 1749

So there you have it, I will explain my choices now...

From what I have read, the Night Lords enjoy causing great amounts of fear in their enemies, so I thought I would do the same, which is why I have two possessed Vindicators, and a Dreadnought. I also chose the Dread because I bought the Forge World one, and loved the model. I have avoided taking almost anything Chaos related as the Night Lords don't worship the Chaos Gods in general, they are willing to use Chaos though. The possessed are degenerate battle brothers that have been herded up and are kept in line by the Champion (who will be modeled as a un-mutated Night Lord). The Chaos Lord has a daemon-weapon to represent a strong and experienced fighter. The Vindicators are Possessed, to represent the Crew being battle hardend and also, who doesn't want a Vindicator that can't be stunned/shaken. As for the Icons, it allows me to re-roll Leadership tests, again, battle hardend, and they are "Teleport homers" for my Terminators.

I have 15 days to now build, a Rhino, a Vindicator, 5 terminators and 5~ men, and then paint, them and 25 other men, two more Rhino's and a second Vindicator!!!

I am going to do a report every time I get something finished, starting tomorrow, with what I have painted and built to date.

Badger's Log - Deathwing HQs

Ello all,

Blogs are like buses, you wait ages for one and then two show up together. I've been mega busy at work over the last month (still am) but I thought I'd chip in with some info and pics of what I've been working on at home.

First up, I've been hanging fire on getting a Space Marine army for ages, despite how many people said I should. I've never really liked the background of the poster boys of the Imperium and they've never really had a chapter that I liked. I toyed with the idea of Space Wolves for a while, but then there's 3 people at MAWS who have Wolf armies and I don't fancy making it 4. Then I thought about how I can make an elite army on the cheap - Deathwing.

If I was going to do Marines, I'd do them properly. Always being vastly outnumbered, but the hardest guys I can get onto the battlefield. Luckily, a bloke from MAWS was selling a LOT of GW stuff, so I picked up some stuff on the cheap ready to go.

I've assembled everything I've currently got (pictures over the weekend maybe?) but I thought since Col.Straken talked about conversions yesterday, I'd show off my Deathwing HQs in an unpainted state.

Belial with Lightning Claws - Magnetised on the arms to swap weaponry out.

 

Belial with Thunder Hammer and Storm Shield

Belial with Storm Bolter and the Sword of Silence

Chaplain with Storm Bolter and Crozius Arcanum

Librarian with Force Weapon and Storm Bolter (Lots of Grey Knight bits used!!)

So yeah, they're all made from plastic assault terminators with various bits of I've bought or pestered to be given off other MAWS members.

Really excited to get painting these guys now though and get them used in games!


Peace,
SB

A look over the years

I thought that seeing as my Birthday is just a week away (no-one told me!) I would take a trip down memory lane and look at some of the models I have built and painted over the last six years.

My first army that I bought, built AND painted was my Eldar, before that was my Daemonhunters (but Suicide Badger painted them). With my Eldar I had an Idea for a Khainite (Khornate) Exodite army that had scavenged weapons and armour from battlefields. My list was weak as I didn't understand about having a mission for each unit properly, and having units which could fill multiple roles. Although I had a list which consisted of

The Avatar
12 Storm Guardians
12 Guardians
10 Pathfinders
6 Fire Dragons
10 Banshees
and a Fire Prism

with various other bits added on, I think I did well and tried to use ideas I had read and heard to adapt, but the problem was these ideas didn't fit my playstyle which I began to figure out as I got bored with my Eldar. Below is one of my "Conversion" attempts and one of the first models I painted, which was a Tau Devilfish turned Wave Serpent.


As you can see, it was just hacked at with a knife then painted black and red with a roughly painted Khorne symbol, not my best painting skills, but was a start.

I fumbled around with a couple of armies after 1-2 years of Eldar and decided I enjoyed Chaos, as the suited my playstyle of throw some men at the enemy and see what sticks. The problem was I had big ideas for my Chaos and I am still working on making them into a World Eater and Night Lord coalition with the beginnings on mutation showing on some models.

I finally decided to do a Raven Guard army as I loved the idea in the 4th Edition Space Marine Codex, the problem being they had a new book, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. My biggest conversion was this Land Speeder Storm (about a month before they announced the official model)

There was very little special about it, I kept the conversions simple, swapping the Marine bodies for Scouts and adding some antennae along with a cluster of Guard grenade launchers for the Cerebus launcher. This was also my first use of 'Ard coat and the Decals, I would have painted the better but I only spent two weeks on them so the white didn't work properly (a lesson for when I started basing my World Eaters, and painting my brighter Space Wolves and Grey Knights)

Next I turned to Space Wolves which I had put off when I heard about the new Codex, I gave it a quick read through and spotting they kept the Scouts outflanking behind the enemy and Long Fangs splitting their shots I lept onto buying 1500pts for a tournament which was a month away. I opted for a Logan terminator army with fire support from one unit of Long Fangs with Grey Hunters in Rhinos to rush for objectives or hang back.

This was my attempt at making Logan Grimnar as I HATE the metal model, I did some mild conversions to make his Axe look like it could be used as a Hammer, and giving him a "wrist" mounted stormbolter, which was just put on the back of a power fist. This was my first attempt at Fur, and was very pleased my Idea worked of using bestial brown with my newfound love of Washes. I also managed to paint him bright colours without them looking spodgy and washed out. I have now adapted my list to use less terminators and more men on foot led my Ragnar (which I also converted)

My biggest conversion was my attempt at a Tyrannofex, I used a Carnifex and ALOT of greenstuff. It is probably one of my best conversions to date and when painted will hopefully look like it is supposed to belong in a Tyranid army.

Keeping with the Tyranids I think one of my best painted conversions/dioramas is my Parasite of Mortex clawing the face off a Salamander (to encourage Angryman to get painting his Salamanders). My Tyranids were painted to look rotten and sickly seeing as I loved the Venomthrope model and rules along with them being started just after my stag do when I felt very very ill. I used brown and green washes which made the models stand out and gave them some definition where my painting skills couldn't. The Salamander was also fun for me to paint, especially the power axe which I spent two hours on to get the red looking like it was rippling lava.

My most recent painting was my six man Deathwatch Kill Team. These guys represent the pinnacle of my painting abilities to date and if you compare them (and the Tyranid) with my Eldar you can see that in six years I have improved if not largely. I managed to layer the whites/parchment to give it a bright colour rather that a spodgey greyish black. I also used a similar method on the Lightning Claws as with the Salamanders Axe giving it a flahsing effect.

So, The point of this post (other than to make myself feel better that I have improved) was to say how we have all changed and advanced in certain areas. I no longer JUST take what models I think look cool, though that does play a big part. I have figured out how I enjoy playing and what my basic tactics usually are. I enjoy hitting the opponent hard and fast using short range firepower to assist my combat troops, while keeping a few heavy weapons at the back to keep my flanks safe, I also try to take at least one unit that can deep strike or outflank.

I now know with conversions sometimes the subtlest changes are the best, a weapon or head swap and repositioning of a model can make it a thousand times better than chopping and changing every last drop.

I have also learnt alot about painting, layering is important, building up the colours helps to get the shade you want. Most importantly, washes make a half decent paint job ten times better.

So, how far have you all come in the time you have been in this hobby, my six years have seen alot of money spent, but some good friends earned and tips and pointers learnt.

Badger's Log - Brotherhood Imagifier and Gaming Break

Morning all,

First up is the news that I'll probably not be posting as often on here over the next few weeks, and I also won't be playing at the club for a couple of weeks. Work schedule, deadlines and so on - so yeah, that's that.

However, one byproduct of it means that when I get home I don't want to do much else other than slob around... which is handy for getting some painting done.

Currently on my paint desk I've got another Incubi squad, a Klaivex / Drazhar conversion, Baron Sathonyx, a random Hellion and a (now completed) Brotherhood of the Forge Imagifier to go with a Retributor squad.

 

I think this guy took about half an hour to paint in total, but it rounds off a Heavy Bolter retributor squad I've had done for a bit, allowing me to re-roll the Faith test, which for a small squad such as Retributors, it's vital I feel.

Only problem is the new WD codex Sisters is probably going to ruin that plan! And since I probably won't be playing over the next few weeks, he may very well be a waste of time.

So that's that for now, I'll post up some picture of the Incubi if I get them done any time soon.

Peace,
SB

[40K] Points Limits

Morning all,

Just a brief one that I've been thinking about over the weekend. As one of the players at the club was without a game, I'd offered to play him and was asked "What points do you want to play?". That then got me onto thinking some more about points limits, which ones people prefer and what the choices are for those points limits.

So, I'll start at the bottom rung of the ladder:

200pt Kill Teams
I've not played this much, but after our demo game at Phalanx, I've been tempted to play a couple of games of this on a Monday night, rather than 1 big game. The appeal to me is that each individual kill makes a difference. In larger games of 40K, I'm so used to pulling 10 Orks off the table, that I don't care much for the losses - it's all part of the bigger picture.

It's also quite cheap to start new forces for, along with painting testers for a larger force. I wouldn't mind using Kill Team as a way of launching some of my next army ideas. I've also got grandiose dreams of building a Veteran Squad to use for Kill Teams that I can incorporate into my Guard army.


400/500pt Combat Patrol
This is the next step up from Kill Teams and provides 40k at an extremely streamlined level. Usually 2 squads, a vehicle and a minor character or so. Another thing I like about playing at this points level is the challenge of writing a good list (albeit, not with Necrons...).

Using a 4 x 4 board along with some objective based missions, or a lot of terrain, really makes the game feel like a narrative skirmish between the forces. It makes it a lot easier to personalise the battles and keep track of everything that's happened along the way.

1000/1250pts
As with 500pts, the appeal of this is that every kill matters. It also means you can play more 40k-esque games with the actual missions and standard force org charts. It also allows you more flexibility with what you want to theme your army around, rather than the barebones 500pt level, where usually once you've fulfilled the force org requirements, you're just left with points for upgrades.

1500pts
This is my personal favourite at the moment. It used to be the "Standard" Tournament size, however since being at MAWS and getting into 40K properly, I've worked towards 2000pts as the norm, to go with Britcon requirements.

Anyways, over the past 3 or 4 months, I've scaled back to 1,500pts and I'm loving it at the moment. I find it a real challenge when designing an army list to use at 1500, as points start to run out quickly. It makes me reconsider my unit sizes, dropping a model or two to bring them under, rather than running full squads and whatnot.

It also means the loss of 500pts and a few less things to move, means that the game ultimately flows a lot faster for me, each unit is more important, and I have to consider deployment, cover and movement in the game a lot more.

1750 /1850pts
I have to say, I've not played a lot at this points level, save for a few tournaments I've been too. It offers more freedom when designing the army list and allows players to take some bigger units, more expensive characters and whatnot.

2000pts
This is where I used to aim towards whenever I would buy or begin making a new army. For the last few years, the plan had always been they would get used at Britcon - so would be within regulations for that.

2k allows a lot of freedom when writing a list, especially when it comes to super units, expensive characters and upgrades. It also changes the amount of scoring units people can bring to the game, which again changes the way you think and move around during the mission.

The only downside with this is the time everything takes. Set up is longer, movement phases take longer and everything else. I like the sight of 2 x 2000pt armies facing off against one another, but I don't enjoy this points level as much as I used to do.

Conclusion
So what do you guys think? There's a few I've not spoken about, like Spearhead, Apocalypse and some of the American tournament points limits like 2250 etc.

Personally, 1500pts is where I like to play at the moment, but I'd love to get some Kill Team games in using a lot of terrain, some really nicely converted models and maybe even just to try and get a Kill Team for each Codex in 40K.

What's your preference on points limits for your games? When it comes to playing and army list writing, as well as factors like cost and transport.

Peace,
SB

Sisters of Battle Rumour Thoughts

Ello,

Today I thought I'd run through the Sisters of Battle WD Codex rumours that have been floating around for a bit. Most people know them and / or have read them on BOLS / Elsewhere, but I was looking at my Brotherhood of the Forge army last night and wondered where this is going to leave me now...

 

I'm pasting the rumours from BloodofKittens HERE and HERE and I'll intersperse with my thoughts in.

• Allies gone
• Inquisition gone
• Faith streamlined
• USRs updated to 5th
• Cheaper Unit costs

As most people have said, these are the obvious things to happen.

Allies going is good. I don't mind if the codex has it's own Guardsmen rules or whatever else (highly unlikely) but the system of sharing between Codexes was a pain. Although it was pretty nice when you're starting the army, to be able to ally it into your Marines or Imperial Guard.

I'm a bit upset with the loss of the Inquisition, I really enjoyed using the Inquisitors and their Henchmen - hopefully it doesn't mean the removal of Zealots as well. I really wanted to make a unit of them!

Faith getting streamlined is something I never had a problem with, but I can understand where people had confusion upon reading the codex. All fine by me really, anything that makes it a bit more obvious to the opponent and also means no keeping track of dead models. It's always a fixed roll.

USRs updated and cheaper unit costs are just bringing it into line with 5th ed. The amount of unclear wordings or old terminology from older books, can sometimes cause an issue, or newer rules have done them over.

 Faith

The only thing that really stays the same is only faith producing units can use faith. Gone is the over and under rules based on model count and gone is faith powers that everyone can use.  It is replaced with every unit has its own unit specific act of faith to call upon. 

I did like the unit size rules as it made you think more about the squad size you were taking, as an example, Retributors in the old book trying to get the rending was much easier if you took a 10 man squad, rather than a 5 - as you had to roll under (if I remember right...) the number in the squad. I don't mind either way really

 So for instance Repentia Act of Faith allows them to always land an attack even if they are killed before they can swing. They are little bonuses like re-rolling to wound and hit, no USRs. Now this if fine and dandy if you just pop a faith point and bam! power goes off, but not so fast. Acts of Faith require that you roll 5+ to activate . This makes faith much more unreliable… maybe. In addition every unit that can get faith generates 1d6 faith points per turn. This also means that a new faith pool is generated each turn with no storing of past faith. As well faith can be activated in multiple phases of the game, so for instance you can re-roll to hit in your shooting phase or in your assault phase.

A straight 5+ roll, (which I'd imagine that Imagifiers would give a re-roll to), sounds not too great. Depending how many dice you can chuck at it, obviously. With the sound of a "Faith Pool" similar to Fantasy Magic, I would imagine you can chuck multiple dice and it's not so bad. At least every unit has a chance on 1D6 to get their power off.

I'm in two minds about this however, I did like having to think tactically about where to spend my points across the enter 5 to 7 turns and having a finite amount. I do agree this way is easier to keep track of, but yeah. Not bad, just different.

Random tidbits

• All Faith generating units get +6 invul save
• All units that can get transports get Immolators or Rhinos
• Assassins gone (Death Cult still in)
• Wargear with the same names as GK wargear stay and get changed over. (e.g. Psybolt Ammo)
• Karamazov gone
• Priests in, pretty much same as before.
• No change to the general Bolter, Melta, Flame concept of the Sisters

Invulnerable saves are never anything to be sniffed at. Although I wonder what this means for their Psychic defence?

The Immolators / Rhino dedicated transport options sounds pretty good, it's similar to the Razorback / Venom small unit or a Raider / Rhino for a bigger squad options we've seen about.

I'm glad at least that Death Cult stayed. I'd got 3 of them painted up ready to use. I would have liked to have the option for an actual assassin however.

Wargear I'm not too fussed over, it's one of those things that needs doing.

Karamazov I'm gutted over. I really wanted to convert a Brotherhood version of him.

Sisters have about 5 HQ choices including Special Characters
St. Celestine: Same price as a Grand Master you get 2+/+4 saves, WS/BS 7 Jump Pack, Fleet, Power Weapons always wounds on 4+   Has the power to come back like GK Thawn if killed.

Sounds good, pretty in line with what's already there now, just dependant on what wargear she has (blessed weapon, flamer, etc.) and if there's any additional special rules like leadership bonuses and whatnot.

Confessor: Takes the slot of the old Inquisitors. Cheap HQ (Warboss). Can create a henchman band using most of the henchman found in the GK codex. What makes the Confessor extra deadly is the ability for it to re-roll hits and wounds for her and the squad. This is the translation of the rumor matrix. So think for one second about her and the Death Cult together?

I guess I've just found what my Inquisitor model will now become. Time to start thinking about how to convert the Henchmen. With the last codex I really wanted an Inquisitor leading a retinue of all Crusaders (I'm thinking of Dwarf Shieldbearers) but that fell by the wayside when I read the "Max 3 of each" line.

Repentia: Cheaper close to SM cost. FNP, Rage, Fearless, 6+ invul, no transports

Good. I love the Repentia, I just want more and cheaper. Start thinking about getting another box of Dwarf Miners now then...

Battle Sister Squad: Cheaper 10-20 unit size (no combat squads), but has access to Immolators which begs the question… Immolators either get increased transport capacity or Sisters break the rules concerning model count and buying transports. Multiple acts of faith.

As people have pointed out here, this 10-20 unit size causes issue with the Immolator capacity. I'm hoping that maybe the 10-20 is a mistake and it's actually 5-20, meaning 5 sisters in the Immolator. Glad to see they're cheaper (although it means I need to make more...)

Exocists: Pretty much same as before.

If they aren't broke, don't try to fix them. What I would like is maybe a Blast firing option, even as a paid for extra.

What is not in the Codex

• Repressors 
• Arbites

Booooooo! I wanted Judge Dredds and the Repressors would have been a really nice new vehicle, just for some variation.

Canoness: Here is my special shout out to the Canoness: you are terrible. I mean grossly underpowered. Now this is going to sound like a cop-op, but I am not going into details because my hope is that she will be changed before release. It just sounds and looks like she is an unfinished product. She gets her own retinue that cannot do anything; she starts out cheap, but her upgrades are expensive and lame when you compare to everything else. So here is hoping to GW getting her fixed.

Not too great. I was hoping that maybe even if she wasn't too good, that she'd unlock a Celestian squad (or all) as Troops, to get people to consider taking them. Hopefully will get more info on why exactly she's terrible.

Repentia: Forgot to mention they have fleet

Excellent. Might mean they actually get across the board without being mown down, and provide more of an unpredictable threat.

Celastians: Cheaper than a Marine, but not really anything going for them (that I know of)… extra attack. Re-roll hits for act of faith

There goes my Imagifier theory.. Damn. Hopefully they'd be able to take some cool items or weapons?

Sister Battle Squad: Can still get a Heavy Flamer

Good news I guess. I never used them, preferred the cheaper Flamer / Melta option.

Shraphim: They are pretty amazing. Cheaper than a Space Marine you get a Jump Packing, Hit and Running, and an act of faith that has them re-rolling wounds. You can also upgrade them to run with double hand flamers and melta pistols. They act both as an extra close combat weapon and become assault 2 instead of being twin-linked. So that means Assault 2 melta weapons.

So in other words, no change to how popular they are nowadays. Assault 2 rather than twin-linked is a bit swings and roundabouts really. It does mean you might get 2 Melta shots, rather than 1 pretty good chance of getting 1.

Dominion Squads: Still get 4 special weapons. Act of Faith twin-linked.

Never really bothered using them because they weren't scoring unit. I can see the benefit for them in an Immolator, hopping out with 4 meltas to trash something but other than that I wasn't sold. We'll see.

Retributor Squads: Pretty fantastic. CHEAP! Talking under Long Fang cheap to fully kit out. Expect the return of the Heavy Bolter with these. Act of Faith is Rending.

These were one of my favourite units in the current codex. As soon as I read the act of faith for ignoring armour saves on a 6, I wanted 4 Heavy Bolters to try and waste through a Marine unit or other such. I'm glad that their act of faith in the new book is actual Rending, now it means everyone will be jumping on the Heavy Bolter fun.

Penitent Engines: Again fantastic. Same statline (Walker). No Scout or Infiltrate. Cheaper and can be a squadron aka 9 Engines. They still get the 1D6 attacks, but any wounds generate additional attacks (don’t know if they work like Blood Talons). 6+ Invul (don’t know if they generate faith)

I like Penitent engines, in the last book it was just a shame you couldn't take more (and that the models were expensive and weighed a ton...) but it was always my intention to take some. I figured with the rumours of a new book and updated models (and Finecast changes) I'd hang fire on these guys for the time being. I'd really like at least 1 unit of them in my force though. I love the idea of the walkers going mental. I'd also like if they did an upgrade character for these, like a Priest Overseer, allowing them re-rolls or 1 mob to be a Troop choice.

So that's it folks... Took me a while to compile and comment on them, but overall I'm really excited (as with any new Codex!) and I'm glad to see a WD update. I know a lot of people have got up in arms over it, but I'm beyond caring. Any update is a good update, in my opinion.

Thanks to Blood of Kittens for the rumours initially.

Peace,
SB

Post-Monday Dark Eldar Thoughts

Ello,

Thought I'd get around to posting an update based on Monday night's gaming, and try and evolve onwards from last week's game against the Imperial Guard.

I tweaked my list a bit to try and get around some of the problems I had last week, 2 units of Wyches in Venoms didn't seem to work, so I went with (roughly) the following.

Duke Sliscus
Haemonculus (Venom Blade, Shattershard)
Haemonculus (Power Weapon, Hex Rifle)
4 Incubi in a Venom (2 x Splinter Cannon, Night Shield)
9 Kabalite Warriors (Blaster) in a Raider (Flickerfield, Splinter Racks)
10 Kabalite Warriors (Splinter Cannon, Blaster, Sybarite, Agoniser) in a Raider (Flickerfield, Splinter Racks)
5 Wyches (Hydra Gauntlets, Hekatrix, Agoniser, Phantasm Launcher) in a Venom (2 x Splinter Cannon, Nightshield)
3 Wracks in a Venom (2 x Splinter Cannon, Nightshield)
3 Beastmasters (1 x Agoniser) w/ 10 Khymarae and 3 Clawed Fiends
Ravager (3 x Dark Lance)

Set up was Dawn of War, Capture and Control 5 objectives, facing off against Craftworld Eldar, which the list was roughly this:
Eldrar
Asurman
10 Dire Avengers
10 Dire Avengers
10 Guardians with a Scatter Laser (?)
3 War Walkers with Scatter Laser and Missile Launcher
3 Individual Vypers with Eldar Missile Launcher
Fire Prism
Wraithlord

The only thing I set up on the board was the Wrack unit, with it's Venom, along with the Hexrifle Haemonculus. I deployed the Wracks right on my objective, in a good piece of cover with low visibility for incoming fire. The Haemonculus deployed just outside of the Venom, ready to hop in first turn.

Rather than cover the game in detail, I'll try and deal with a few main points for me...

1. Night Vision
This is obviously far, far more useful than 4th ed, since roughly 1/3rd of the time (or if you're Brother Captain Ventris, EVERY MISSION) you're playing with Dawn of War.

Being able to re-roll those poor Night Vision rolls allowed me to fire on the deployed Dire Avengers and Guardians with practically everything, rather than the odd bit here and there. This combined with Dark Eldar mobility means that anything mid-table in Dawn of War, isn't safe at all from my fire power moving onto the board.

2. Night Shields.
This saved me the game. First turn as the Craftworld Eldar moved on, there were some extremely close Night Vision rolls for the vehicles to shoot my Raiders and Venoms. Thankfully, paying for the Night Shields ended up knocking off the extra inches that meant most things were safe, mobile and still able to shoot, when it came to Turn 2.

3. Cover
I'm starting to use cover a bit better now with the Dark Eldar. Starting my setup hugging buildings, or using their agile nature to position myself well.

4. Supporting Fire
In previous games I had been relying on my Dark Lances off the Raiders in order to damage vehicles. At best I wanted to destroy them, at the very least I'd prefer to stop them shooting for a turn, rather than an immobilise.

What I'd began to do was to use the Blaster and Blast Pistol (if in range) from the Raider squad first to have 1 hit, then decide if I could use the Dark Lance elsewhere. This meant usually, 3 shots on a single vehicle, that could help keep me alive, or better yet, remove the threat.

5. Supporting Units
Similar to supporting fire with other units, the concept of tag-teaming units together. This usually came in the form of a Warrior Squad thinning infantry units, to allow the Wyches or Incubi an easier fight.

What I tried to do, was to ensure that rather than Unit A shoot Enemy Unit A, Unit B shoots Enemy Unit B, etc. I tried to make it so that I had 3 - 4 units attacking a single target at a time, crippling or removing that enemy unit completely.

6. Shattershard.
This was an awesome 15pt spend. Basically, it's similar to Jaws of the World Wolf in that it's a "Remove from play" attack, with no savesof any kind allowed, just a toughness test. The other good thing about it is that it's "Models Hit by..", which means any model under the template takes the test. Not distributed around the unit like Wound Allocation, as there are no wounds to allocate.

What this meant on Monday was that I got the template over 6 or so Dire Avengers, along with Asurman. Asurman failed his Toughness test, and despite being a bad-ass Phoenix Lord with Eternal Warrior, he was popped... No doubt that my Haemonculi won't be getting anywhere near the enemy lines in the future.

On the bright side (down side if you're me) it's only One Shot and you can only take 1 per army.

7. Beastmasters run. All the time.
However solid they may be, my Beastmaster unit seems to run away in every game. They'll do some damage, and soak up fire, but so far they've legged it each time. I'm thinking maybe I need to invest in some Razorwing Flocks to go with them to try and get some rending rolls and deny armour saves. Since y'know, you can roll a shedload of attacks, but still have everything saved. (With Craftworld scum casting Fortune!).

Conclusion
I've done a fair bit of reading on the Dark Eldar, along with some changes, but I'm really enjoying playing using them. They're making me think alot more about cover, my positioning of units and my mobility around the board.

It also REALLY helps when your opponent forgets half of his upgrades and special rules... Unfortunately, I've not got a clue when it comes to Codex: Eldar so didn't know what most of it did to help out.

So that's that for another week. I think that we may be partaking in some Battlefleet Gothic next Monday!

Peace,
SB

Badger's Log - Finecast Dark Eldar Incubi

Ello all,

Played another game with my Dark Eldar last night, against Angryman's Craftworld Eldar. I'll get onto that a bit more tomorrow, but first up I wanted to show off my Finecast Dark Eldar Incubi.

Now I know there's been a lot of moaning about price increases and such with Finecast, but personally I'm all for it. Metal models weigh a ton, require pinning and also require regular upkeep and a good spray of varnish. I'm more than willing to pay a few quid extra for my models to have them lighter, easier to transport and not require varnishing or pinning.

That being said, I've had problems with the boxes showing up with the wrong number of body sprues to match the Klaive sprues. So what I'd suggest is that if you want to buy any that are boxed, get them from the store and open the box there and then. Rather than dealing with GW customer services and waiting on the postal service...

Anyway, that being said. It took me a few hours to assemble the squad (lots of flash to trim) but not very long to paint them. An hour or 2 on Sunday left me with these 4.

I'm really pleased with how the blue armour's turned out. It's literally just a very controlled drybrush using Ice Blue. I also really like the helmets being white as a contrast, along with the effect the black wash has given on the Klaives.

The new Incubi are some of my absolute favourite models GW has done, I love their rules, fluff and the models - it was just the weighty metal stopping me from buying them. Hopefully I'll get a few more of them soon and make my army so that it's heavy on Incubi. Damn you Drazhar for not making them a Troop choice!

Comments and critiscisms? Anyone else like the Incubi models? Had any problems with Finecast?

Peace,
SB

Demo Game - Battle For Hades Hive - 2nd War for Armageddon

Ello,

On Saturday we ran 2 demo games at Phalanx in St Helens. It was a really good event, and I'd urge those who didn't go this year, to check it out next year. I've not got any pictures of the actual event hall and stalls, but there were a lot of really great traders, along with a bring and buy. (So next year, I'll start saving up some pennies a couple of months before!)

So, we decided for our MAWS 40K demo game, we'd like to do one of the Armageddon battles, but it was dependant on who would be going as to what one we'd run. Eventually it was decided that we'd do the 2nd War for Armageddon as we had Orks, Guard and Blood Angels.

We did it at 10k for the Orks and 9k for the Imperium, but loooking at the table we had, we vastly underestimated how much stuff we had to fit on the board - although it did look epic! But actually trying to play the game and move units was a nightmare.

So yeah, here's some pictures of it all...

Pre-Game shot of the terrain on the table, courtesy of Sanguinius' hard work.

View from the ultimate Vantage Point. No cover saves from up here folks!

The Green tide descends!

"Who suggested 10,000 pts? Look how many Orks I've got to move!"

Tycho and Corbulo become a road block, to prevent the Stompa getting to the Land Raider.

"Fire EVERYTHING at the Stompa!"

Mr Stompa Head finally topples over after 3 turns of Imperial shooting.

Sly Marbo takes aim...

Ork Fighta Bommas emerge amidst the Imperial Guard's backline.

The Killa Kans attempt to avenge their father... "Nooooooo! Daddy!!"

(Young) Commissar Yarrick takes on Warboss Ugulhard, ultimately defeating him and claimining his Battle Klaw!

Dante and the Sanguinary Guard take on the Meganobz and Warboss.

We called it at the end of Turn 3, as we needed to make a start on packing up. It was good fun, just a lot of models for the table size we had, especially playing 1 v 1.

The Imperium held back the advancing green tide (no thanks to the amount of terrain on the board!) succesfully defending Hades Hive for the time being. But we all know that Orks never truly lose!

We've got a few plans for future demo games, (all of which will be reduced in points!) based on feedback and other demo games we saw around the hall.

Big thanks to everyone who helped out beforehand and on the day (Sanguinius, Col. Straken, Farseer Jordan) and also a big thanks to St Helens Spartans for organising a fantastic event, and allowing us to play the demo game.

Peace,
SB

P.S. Everyone LOVES the Stompa. He'll definitely be at the next show.