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

Post-Game: Dark Eldar v 6th Ed Chaos Marines

Morning folks,

Last night I brought out my Dark Eldar again to see if their victory against the Tau the other week was a complete fluke - and mostly because it meant I didn't have to write a new list or pack models up.

I played against Angryman's Chaos army to give the new codex a try, so he'd not had too long to put a list together. So... we squared off with the following lists (ish - give or take a few upgrades I can't remember):

Dark Eldar:

- Archon (Shadowfield, Soul Trap, Huskblade) [Warlord: +1 to Charge Rolls]
- Haemonculis (Hex-Rifle, Shattershard)
- 8 Wracks
- 9 Incubi (Klaivex, Onslaught)
- Raider (Dark Lance, Torment Grenade Launcher, Night Shields, Aeither Sails)
- 10 Warriors (Sybarite w/ Agoniser, Splinter Cannon, Blaster)
- Raider (Dark Lance, Torment Grenade Launcher, Night Shields, Aeither Sails)
- 10 Scourges (2 Haywire Blasters, 1 Splinter Cannon, Solarite w/ Venom Blade)
- 3 Beastmasters (1 Agoniser, 10 Khymarae, 1 Clawed Fiend)
- Ravager (3 Dark Lances, Night Shields)

 
Chaos Space Marines:

- Daemon Prince (Khorne? Winged. Got +1 Strength on his Boon roll before game) [Warlord: Enemies within 12" use lowest LD]
- Daemon Prince (Khorne? Winged. Got +1 BS on his Boon roll before game)
- 15 Chaos Marines (1 Plasma, 1 Melta, Champion, Icon of Wrath?)
- 20 Chaos Marines (1 Plasma, 1 Melta, Champion, Icon of Wrath?
- 5 Chaos Terminators
- Defiler
- Vindicator

We played "Big Guns Never Tire" with 3 objectives and the diagonal deployment and I chose to deploy and go first.

We also rolled so that Night Fighting was present on Turn 1.

Turn 1 - Dark Eldar

So, first turn for the Dark Eldar I tried to get my guns just on 36" to mean I could fire, but any return fire and I'd be getting +2 cover save (meaning 2+ on my very obscured Incubi raider) and combined with Night Shields try and minimise fire back.

I kept my Scourges in reserve to deep strike in, hoping they'd be of some use later and also to minimise the fact there wasn't a lot of cover.

I ploughed the Beastmaster unit forward to behind the big central building, kept the Raiders obscured but moved them and the Ravager up to 35"ish so they could hope for some cheeky lance shots.

I think I managed to wound a flying Daemon Prince but that was about it.

Turn 1 - Chaos Marines

Both the Daemon Princes flew directly towards the Dark Eldar meaning I'd still need 6s to hit the following turn.

The 2 Chaos Marine blob units budged forward (or at least, tried to. They both rolled really low on difficult terrain) as did the Defiler.

The Vindicator attempted to fire at one of the Raiders, but thanks to my lovely, lovely Night Shields, was out of range.

The Defiler then cast it's gaze upon the other Raider with my Incubi unit in. But fortunately for me, I was behind cover and Shrouded so I passed the cover save.

Turn 2 - Dark Eldar

Turn 2 for the Dark Eldar and no sign of the Scourge reinforcements.

I moved the Incubi Raider up it's full distance and flat out to try and head towards the backfield objective.

The 2 Daemon Princes were still up in the air so they took the brunt of fire as they were the closest and biggest threats. But I didn't manage to do much to them at all.

I chipped a Hull Point off the Defiler using some cheeky lance fire.

Then I assaulted a Chaos Marine unit with my Beastmasters, lost the resulting combat (partly for going at I1 for charging through difficult) and then ran back towards my edge.

Turn 2 - Chaos Marines

Turn 2 for Chaos and the Terminator unit showed up from reserve, ready to deep strike onto the table. Trying to land close to my Wrack unit holding an objective. However, a really unlucky scatter landed them on top of their own Daemon Prince and Angryman rolled a 1 for the Deep Strike mishap. Goodbye Mr Terminators!

The 2 Daemon princes chose to land and go after a Ravager and a Raider (Warriors) each, and the Marine squad that defeated the beastmasters chased down the final Raider (Incubi).

Between shooting and assault, the Ravager was destroyed along with the Warrior's raider meaning they piled out on the other side of some cover to the Daemon Prince - ready to return fire.

The Chaos marines failed to destroy the Incubi raider between all their attacks - although thinking back about it, I'm sure if they could have used Krak grenades rather than going at S4 (albeit with 1 less attack).

Also, the Defiler with it's "It Will Not Die" rule got one of it's lost Hull Points back.

Turn 3 - Dark Eldar

In turn 3, the Scourges showed up and performed a pin point landing just outside the Chaos objective building and the Beastmasters regrouped ready to fight on.

The Incubi hopped out of their Raider ready to face down the Marines outside, as the Raider itself made a "tactical retreat" away from everyon, but still in Lance range.

The Kabalite Warriors hopped into terrain, ready to deal with the Daemon Prince that was on their doorstep and the Wracks shifted themselves about to deal with a fresh-from-Ravager-Killing Daemon Prince.

Shooting time and the Scourges managed, after about 40 shots, to kill 1 lowly Chaos Marine in the building. Pitiful...

The Kabalite Warriors however managed to fare much better and took 3 wounds off the Daemon Prince nearby. Lastly, my Haemonculus failed for the third time in a row to hit with his Hexrifle. Abysmal.

Onwards to assault and the Beastmasters declared a charge on the nearby Chaos Marine squad, took the overwatch fire and then got into charge. The Incubi and Archon decided to leave the hulking Daemon Prince and take some frustration out on the Chaos Marines too - charging in.

The Chaos Marine champion then issued a challenge to the Dark Eldar elite swordsmen and the Archon. The Dark Eldar noble scoffed at the thought of fighting such a lowly opponent and sent the Incubi Klaivex forwards instead.

In the resulting assault, the Dark Eldar lost 2 Khymarae and in return killed about 6 or 7 Chaos Marines, meaning they needed snake eyes to pass. Which they failed and were hacked down by the Incubi.

The Chaos Champion was cut down by the Klaivex combining his Demi-klaives.

Turn 3 - Chaos Marines

In retaliation, the Chaos Marines unleashed a torrent of fire on the Scourges from the Chaos Marine unit in the building and a Vindicator, wipining the Scourges out of existence, with not a single save being passed.

The Defiler then turned it's attention on the Incubi unit and the Daemon Princes prepared to charge their respective targets - a Kabalite warrior unit and the unit of Wracks with Haemonculis.

Assault 1 - Daemon Prince on Kabalite Warriors. I think this was the first and only time my Overwatch has ever done anything, killing the Daemon Prince off thanks to a torrent of Splinter weapon fire.

Assault 2 - The Defiler on the Incubi and Archon. That unit had nothing that could deal with the Defiler for a turn, so I thought to myself "I'll pile the wounds on the Archon, he's got a 2+ invulnerable save, he'll be fine!" and lowe and behold... first dice rolled... a 1. Archon and 2 Incubi insta-killed. The Incubi then chose to fail their morale test, as per "Our Weapons Are Useless!" and flee.

Assault 3 - Daemon Prince on Wracks. This was a mega nulled combat with I don't think either side causing a wound thanks to FNP on the Wracks and the Prince's Armour. However, what it did do, was cause the Wracks to pile in 3" and down a level taking the top 3 of the unit away from the objective.

Then I had to finish the game there due to the time...

Result

Chaos 4
(1 Objective, 1 Heavy Support Killed, 1 Warlord Killed, 1 Linebreaker)

Dark Eldar 2
(1 First Blood, 1 Warlord Killed)

All in all, was a good enjoyable game of 6th ed. I got my first taste of how hard it can be to hit Flyers / Flying Monsters and more practice with my Dark Eldar is always good. I think if I can add a decent anti-flyer solution to the force, I've got a nice enough list for me to stick with.

Stuff I Forgot:

Now, like usual there's some stuff I forgot during the game, either from rustiness or lack of familiarity with 6th ed.

1. Forgot to give my Pain Token to the Incubi and Beastmasters after they killed the Marines. Would have helped some shooting I took in Turn 3, but oh well.

2. It was a bit pointless letting my Archon take the Defiler wounds. If I'd drawn combat, I would have been locked in. I should have accepted the 3 Incubi casualties and then failed my Morale.

3. Beasts, even though they ignore difficult terrain for movement and charging, still are Initiative 1 when they go through it. Meaning they don't get to make use of the Dark Eldar high initiative. This combined with Overwatch meant I lost most of my Khymarae before doing anything.

4. REMEMBER TO PUT THE BLOODY DARK ELDAR FAQ IN MY BAG. For the second week running, I brought the Chaos Daemon FAQ.

Cheers,
SB.

Badger's Log - Daemon Prince and Bloodcrushers

Morning again folks,

Another productive weekend for me and my Khorne Daemon army. I started Saturday morning with 2 Bloodcrushers, a Herald on a Juggernaut and a Daemon Prince all sat in grey plastic. Lucky for me, Saturday morning was clear of rain and I managed to get them sprayed up before lunchtime.

I then spent the evening painting the models up, with the hope to get them all finished ready for gaming on Monday night. Thankfully, my Daemons take next to no time compared to my Deathwing and before I went to bed, I had all of them done with the Black wash drying.

Sunday morning I got the bases done and that was the end of that chapter! They're quick and dirty again, but they're painted and that's all that matters to me at the moment with the Deathwing I need to finish off, Brotherhood of the Forge to do and (from reading the rumours over the weekend) planning for tons of Necrons to do.

So here's the pics:

Apologies for the pics being a bit rubbish, it was bad lighting when I took them and the flash on my phone is utter rubbish.

Cheers,
SB

Road to Warrington - The way home!

So I did promise a couple of battle reports, but the games were so close I forgot to take any pictures. Now that the Northern Warlords GT is over, I thought I would go through what happened for me, and what I ended up thinking about the tournament.

To begin with I got everything painted to the minimum three colours and based, all that I have remaining is the lightning detail. I also plan to do a bit of freehand painting some Skulls and squad Icons on the back of the Rhino's to distinguish each squad.

So here is my painted army on the whole after the fourth game of the tournament.

My tournament didn't go quite as planned, I was expecting to lose the majority of games, as I am only an average player, and I was taking a "sub-optimal" Chaos Marines list. In my first game, I got really unlucky as was drawn against a "leafblower" list with the Spearhead deployment. It ended up with me being completely wiped out, I didn't even manage a single Victory Point, let alone a Kill Point. So that put me at the bottom, with a 20-0 loss and -1750 Kill points.

My Dreadnought (best painted model so far) and a glimpse of my Terminators and Possessed

So, in my second game I thought, this should be closer, and a more fun game, but boy I was wrong, I faced an almost Identical list, but with one less Vendetta and two less Hydra's. This time it was Dawn of War, and I thought I stood a chance, all I needed was for my Missile Launcher to hit a few times and it looked good with the first shot blowing up one Vendetta. But he then shot his remaining shots at my Vindicators blowing them both up through their smoke. This left me struggling and although I managed to get around 500 kill points, it ended up with a 20-0 loss again!!!

Third game, should have been easy then, I was still on zero points, and I got drawn against a Blood Angels, jump pack list. Great! I have two Vindicators that love to munch Marines, unfortunatly those two Vindicators missed four times over two turns, the Missile Launcher couldn't hit the Storm Raven (so far he had hit two things in three games). The game should have ended in a draw, but due to some miss-information, I gave the game away for a 14-6 loss. My opponent was gracious and offered a draw, but I didn't mind as I had enjoyed the game, and let him keep his win.

My Chaos Lord with Daemon weapon, being followed by his possessed retinue.

So, in my fourth game, I was put against a Space Wolf player from Aus, this guy had missed the first day due to illness. He had four Thunderwolves, and a Lord on a Thunderwolf, along with 15 Missile Launchers. I managed to kill his Thunderwolves (first time I had fought them) due to some bad rolling on my opponents behalf, It ended 15-5 loss because I couldn't get rid of the last couple of men in each squad.

Fifth game I got put against a judge as my opponent hadn't shown up, he had Daemons and I thought it would be an easy game, but this guy could Roll 5+'s like his life depended on it. I just couldn't compete with his good rolling and ended up getting flattened, though my Possessed and Lord killed 17 and a half Fiends of Slaanesh. So I was quite happy, so once again that's a 20-0 loss.

My Possessed Champion whipping the Possessed forwards being closely followed by the Terminators.

Last game, I faced an Ultramarine player with Cassius and Khan. He outflanked with Khan and 10 bikes, and his Land Raider with Cassius and some Termies, thankfully the Land Raider turned up on his side of the board. Khan managed to kill all but one Possessed and my Chaos Lord, and he and his squad then got swamped by two units of Chaos Marines, and my Lord rolled a 6 for his Daemon weapon! If the game had ended on turn 5 it would have been a high win to me, but due to the game continuing until turn 7, it ended in a complete draw of 10-10.

So all in all, there was around 15-16 Grey Knight Players, 6-7 Guard Players, 4-5 Blood Angels, and various other armies, including at least two Lash Prince, obliterator spam Chaos lists. I went away from the first day disappointed and quite bored with the game, thankfully the people I played day two were much more fun and it felt more like a game rather than just me turning up and putting my models away.

The guy I played third game (where I gave the game away) had apparently gone and spoken to the judges about what had happened and nominated me for best sportsman, which I was amazed at as I was just there to have fun. So, I would like to that Gareth Massey for that, and am glad to say I won best sportsman and so didn't leave empty handed. I ended up third from last in the tournament with 21 points.

My trophy!!!

I would also like to add that Pete, one of our newer players to the club (not the game) got nominated for best painted, but unfortunatly lost out to a Chaos Marine player that had done ALOT of brilliant freehand work, even on individual models aswell as the vehicles. I believe Angryman got a few pictures of this guys work, but still. Congratulations to Pete for getting into the top 4 of 52 armies!

Road to Warrington Pt:3

As promised here are a few more pictures of my "finished" models. I have now got around half of the army painted up and am hoping to take a few more pictures tonight to showcase the army/models and to go with my battle report.
First up are my mass armour, there are two Vindicator's, three Rhino's and a Dreadnought all sat ready to cause pain. I have painted two of the Rhino's and both Vindicator's over the weekend, though they are still awaiting the Lightning Detailing, and a bit of weathering (I got some weathering powder from Forge World with the third Rhino's doors). The third Rhino isn't painted because I didn't get the doors until Sunday, but that will be high on my list of what's left to do!

Here is a close up of my burning skulls on one of my Vindicator's, I thought it would be a good "fear" causer to see your fellows thrown onto a blazing fire on the back of a big gun. It also gave me a reason to have a go at painting fire (which didn't work out too well). Instead of working up to the tips I worked down to the fire, but a quick wash of Baal Red blended the paints together and gave it a passable look.

My tin of 46 guys, not really a good transport system, but it works, and they are so crammed in they barely move! I have 18 painted Night Lords, with 12 men undercoated and ready. My main problem is that I don't get my remaining 10 Night Lord Heads and Shoulder Pads, until Friday, which means, that some men are currently only half built!!! I am planning on just painting them up and then painting the heads and shoulder pads separately and gluing them on last minute (on the day if need be)

Nothing has been based yet as that is my last thing to do, the week running up to the tournament. I hope to get 10 men based a day, easy to do I hope!

Road to Warrington Pt:2

So as promised I am going to show you what I have done so far (and what I have left to do).

First up is my 10 men I have painted, they took me 45 minutes per man (need to speed up) I have yet to base or detail the men. They will all be based in a similar manner to the Dreadnought (as below), as for the detailing I may leave that until after the tournament, though I am aiming to get at least 50% of the models detailed before.

As you can see, they have they are not gold like the Night Lords in the Codex, as I prefered the Silver with the Idea of Moonlight. I also painted all the faces with skull plates, which I found out about in the Night Lords Novels. There is a mix of Chaos, and Vanilla Space Marine bits that helpt to make them look like scavengers, 10,000yrs is a long time to keep wearing the same armour and using the same weapons.

I am proudest of this model in my entire collection, it took me roughly 5 hours from undercoating to finish, though I was playing on FIFA at the same time. It is using the exact same colour as the men (I brewed up a batch that is ready for use on the rest of the army).

This is the basing I am planning on using with the rest of the army. It was just a base coat of Adeptus Battlegrey with a Devlan Mud wash. However, its the detailing I am proud of, I painted cracks onto the base, as this is a warzone, the pavement isn't going to be undamaged. I got a blood effect by mixing Scab Red with PVA glue, this gave it a chunky liquidy look which suited the purpose perfectly, and I will be repeating on other weapons and bases.

Here you can see the lightning effect I am planning on using on the rest of the army, this took very little time and produced a good effect (though my picture doesn't do it justice, if I say so myself) It is simply, Ice Blue with a Skull White topping. I used the same technique as the cracks on the base, which was start fat get thin, I then added various offshoots and painted the White slightly off centre to give it a moving and light effect.

Next up, two of the Rhino's still to be painted, there is still one more to be built, just waiting on some more Night Lords Doors. The hatch, guns, and gun turret hatches have not been glued down so they can be opened, removed, changed and so on as much as I want.

The remaining men to be painted (The terminators need to be built as those are old model I used as stand-ins) I have base-coated and put the silver trim on 9 of the men, ready to be finished at weekend.

And lastly, a VERY blurry shot of my Vindicator (on its side?) This has been undercoated and is ready for painting. There is a second Vindicator waiting to be built next to the Rhino.

So this weekend, among moving junk and keeping the room tidy, I am planning to get every model built (excluding the Rhino, and a few heads/shoulderpads I am waiting on) and to have my remaining 20 troops painted, and the two built Rhinos. That then will leave me with, 5 Terminators, 2 Vindicators, 9 Possessed, Rhino, and Chaos Lord to be painted the next weekend.

Bring on Warrington!

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.

[Daemons] Second Wave Pictures!

So here we go, the pics we've been waiting for.

Apparently ALL of them are plastic, bar the Fateweaver and Changeling. Which means PLASTIC BLOODCRUSHERS!!!

So what do you guys think? I think I may definitely have to expand beyond the realms of Khorne!

SB

[Battle Report] The Weekly Waaagh! vs Chaos Space Marines

Morning all,

Last night was the final league game for me in our Warlord tournament for 2010, which was against Rob's Chaos Space Marine army, led by the tag-team of Lucius and Kharn.

The scenario was Cities of Death Plant the Flag, with 8 objective buildings (4 ruins and 4 fuel containers).

With both armies being agressive assault armies, the battle lines were drawn and the race was on for who could cripple the other army quickest in the centre of the field. Facing me down on the field were:
- Lucius
- Kharn and unit of Berzerkers in a Land Raider
- Unit of Berzerkers in a Rhino
- Unit of Khornate Raptors
- Defiler
- Noise Marines

The majority of the army set up facing the Orks, ready to speed forward in their armoured safety, while the footsloggers had to bash the tin cans. The Noise Marines set up at the far ruin as a firebase, as did my Lootas.

The match was extremely bloody (as should be expected between Khorne and Orks).

Lucius managed to hold a 30 strong Ork boy Mob on his own for a full turn, until finally succumbing to the horde.

Kharn, for the first time in the league, killed 2 of his own Berzerkers in combat and was dragged down by a charging unit of 30 Boyz.

The Tankbustas whooped a Land Raider in close combat (which they're quickly getting a reputation for) after shaking, stunning, weapon destroying, immobilising it and then finally getting a destroyed result.

The moment of the game for the Orks was the extremely infamous Burna Wagon, which rolled forward to a disembarked unit of Khorne Berzerkers and unleashed 15 Burna shots.

Now you see them....

Now you don't!

90 flamer hits on the unit was enough to wipe them off the table. Shortly afterwards, the Raptors in the background jumped over and managed to swamped the Battlewagons via Melta fire and Power fist attacks.

In the end, the game resulted in a Wipeout for the Orks, finishing off the only unit left on the board, the Noise Marines, via heavy shooting from Big Shootas and a firebase of Lootas.

It was a fun game, and for a while, the prospect of Lucius and Kharn chopping through the Orks really, really worried me. If it hadn't been for some lucky decisions, such as removing a key Ork boy to prevent Kharn and the Berzerkers charging, and where the other Berzerkers had to disembark from their vehicles, it could have went very differently.

Peace out,
SB.

[Chaos] Converting a Plastic Abbaddon

Howdy all,

I've been away for the weekend, and since I was starting to thin out my Ork pictures and articles, I decided I'd go through my Necron army and Chaos Daemons, taking some pictures ready for a bit of discussion.

However, I opened my Chaos Daemons box and found my Plastic Abaddon conversion inside it. The last remnant of my old Chaos Marine army and the leader of my next Chaos force (should I start one).

If memory serves, I bought a Chaos Terminator Lord box so that I could get some more Lightning Claws and Chainfists for my Ork Killa Kans - however, I then decided that the Terminator Lord remaining parts could be worked with to make a plastic version of Abbaddon - which is easier to transport, less prone to breakage and costs the same price as the Metal version, and gives me a ton of extra bits!

The first thing I had to do was look at the official model and rules - then break it down into components I needed to make:

So looking at the model and rules, the following are important components:

- Bald head with Topknot, no biotics or mechanical parts.

- Talon of Horus, lightning claw with two bolt pistol sized weapons on top.

- Drach'ynen the Daemon sword, more ornate than Techno

- Trophy racks that are huge.

Apologies first of all for what looks like sloppy painting. He was converted, undercoated, sprayed and based over the space of about 36 hours.

Body Style

The body was made from the standard Chaos Terminator Lord parts, with the spikey chest, rather than the "bulls head" style design. I used a blank shoulder pad on the right shoulder and the Eye of Horus on the left side.

Head

His head was made from the bald Chaos Terminator Lord head, with the most scale-correct Ork top knot I could find.

Daemon Sword

His Daemon sword Drach'nyen was made from the sword of a Warhammer Fantasy Chaos Warrior, with the pommel cut off and placed onto where the Chaos Lord's Power Axe was originally.

Talon of Horus

The Talon of Horus was made from the Chaos Lord's Lightning Claw, with two pistols from Khorne Berzerkers trimmed down and placed on top. The dangling ammo belts were cut from the side of the pistols and moved to a more suitable location to match the official model.

Trophy Racks

The other major detail on the official model was the Trophy Racks, which the Terminator lord comes with some big ones that I've not actually shown on the pictures.

Painting

As for painting Abaddon, I really tried to go for a dirty, grimey Chaos look - using a lot of Badab Black wash - as a test bed for a possible Black Legion army.

- Metal: Boltgun Metal and Burnished Gold

- Tabbard and Hair: Blood Red

- Power Cables and Gems: Ice Blue

The skin was a weird one for me to paint, because I'd not painted human flesh for a long, long time and Abbaddon's skin was a sickly pale colour. In the end, I went for Fortress Grey and let the Black wash do the shading for me.

Conclusion

So there you go guys, I'm really happy with how it turned out, especially since it's the same price as the metal model and a LOT less hassle for me. Hope you guys like it, and let me know what you think!

SB

[POLL] The Greatest Chaos God?

It is a long standing debate over which Chaos God is the greatest. Khorne the god of blood and war, Nurgle the god of plague and pestilence, Slaanesh the god of pleasure, or Tzeentch the god of change.

All four gods have benefits and negatives the choice is yours who to follow.

Or is there a greater path to hold them all as equals and worship them together, does that give you greater strength or does it dilute the power?

Lets start with Khorne. he is bloodthirsty and his troops are just the same, at just over 20pts per model, they are fairly cheap for an extra attack and furious charge they are also able to have up to 3 plasma pistols in one unit. The daemon weapon for the lord is particularly devastating allowing up to 18 power weapon attacks.

But Khorne does not have the staying power of Nurgle who are toughness 5 making them alot harder to kill and effectively having two saves thanks to Feel no pain. they can be equipped like a standard squad and have both offensive and defensive grenades, their Daemon weapon can kill any creature

Tzeentch has the staying ability and killing power of both by having a 4+ invulnerable save so that even lascannons are not a threat to them and AP3 bolters means even the Power armour of Space marines is useless. however their disadvantage is high cost and slow movement having to be lead by a sorcerer champion who does have a force weapon (bonus)

Slaanesh has high initiative and multiple weapon settings allowing movement and a high number of shots or stationary firepower. They also have a weapon which strips the armour of Space marines. I don't know too much of Slaanesh so you will have to fill in the gaps

As for going "Black Legion" this is the path i have started to fall down, the increase in effectiveness outweighs the loss of power that each unit suffers from only having one or having normal marines with a banner for them as then the Tzeentch can give the Khorne a cover save while getting their Invulnerable, Nurgle chosen can infiltrate and stay around, the Tzeentch can whittle down any opponent before the Khornate close in and finish them off. It all works in Harmony.

Now you get your say.
Which do you think is best, or do you believe in uniting the Chaos powers for the greater evil.

[Update] You can now vote in the poll on the right hand side of the page :)

[APOC] The Eye of Terror

So, last Sunday all the regular 40k lot from MAWS participated in a semi-recreation of the Eye of Terror:

Jamie's Imperial Guard led by Ursarkar Creed teamed up with Marcus' Ultramarines went toe to toe with Rob and Ste's Chaos Marines led by Abaddon and James' Chaos Daemons who were summoned into battle with a host of massive Greater Daemons.

Unfortunately, we only got through 2 full game turns in this epic 9,000 point per side battle, including a massive amount of Imperial Guard and Ultramarine tanks (including Ste's Baneblade fighting for the Imperium!).

Find some piccies below :)

Thousand Sons secure a Bastion objective as the forces of Nurgle cross the board.

Fiends of Slaanesh surround the defending Ultramarines as they materialise from The Warp.

The Imperial Gunline prepares for the incoming Chaos Marine attack!

Any questions or comments are always welcome, and feel free to ask for more information!