Mordheim!

It's been a while but I finally found the battery charger for my camera so I have some updates to do. First of is something brand new from today, a Night Goblin Mordheim warband! The rules aren't official but they seen pretty balanced. If anyone has complaints I can change them up or alter the rules a bit so they aren't over powered. Most of the units are straight from the original Orcs and Goblins warband. The big change is adding goblin heros and the fanatics which I'm not using yet. The fanatics require a constant upkeep which could cripple me in the early game and they don't gain experience so I can't really justify it to start. They're also a bit on the expensive side so I think I'll leave them for later in development of the warband. Anyways, here are pictures:


Group shot of the whole warband, sans squigs. Close ups follow


A close up of the two main heros, a goblin shaman and a big boss. I think these two models look really cool.


The mob of lesser heros, for now anyways. Their weaponry ranges from clubs and daggers to squig probbers, the three pronged thing on the left


A couple of head bashing goblins, though they probably wont reach heads...maybe knee bashing?


The back row and artillery support for my warband, a trio of short bow goblins.


I also put together a few models that I thought would be cool and I might use later on, in this case a troll and two fanatics

Having not actually played any Mordheim yet I'm not sure how they'll fair but I've gotten the basics down I think. Take as many heros as you can as they're your income. Try to make sure they have some ranged as well as melee so they can always be doing something in combat, that lucky shot might net them some experience. Try and have a multiple of four plus one. It may not seem like I did that last one but with the five squigs I included but don't have models for yet, that puts me at 17 which makes it necessary to take out a hefty 5 models to force a rout test for me. Following all of that I managed, some how, to make a list which takes up all of the starting 500 gold coins and follows all of the basic rules for starting a new warband.


There are a number of other updates which I will be posting over the coming days. I have gotten more for my ogres as well as having a plan and magnetizing my empire. My Necromunda gangs and models have slowly been increasing in number as well. Progress has been slow for a while but I seem to be picking back up again. Omega-3 Fatty Acids apparently help with ADD, who would have thought...

Ogres!

Hi, my names Ben and I'm an army-aholic.

I started *another* fantasy army, this time Ogres. I guess I just haven't found the right army for me yet. Here's some pictures of them so far:

First off is the Bruiser which is my army general. He's a slightly modified Irongun, you'll see later in the pictures.


That's a butcher, converted up from one of the ogre bodies. I'm quite happy with how he turned out.


Last is the full army shot. You can see on the left the Ironguts which are the basis for my Bruiser.

This was not so bad since it's 1000pts straight from the battalion box. There's a lot of little nobblars left to put together but there will eventually be a 20 block of them as fighters as well as a squad of 8 trappers. The nobblars add the much needed unit strength to the ogre army. We'll see if I manage to use them well. This is going to be a very finicky army but I'm looking forward to it because they seem very interesting.

The Butchers is an interesting spell caster. The magic is pulled from the ogre god, the great maw. All of the spells cast on a 3+ which means they usually only need 1 dice. They get harder to cast if there are more butchers trying to cast though so a second casting of any spell takes a 6+, a third would take a 9+, and so on.

The Bulls, on the right, have an interesting weapon which can be used as either an extra hand weapon or a shield, depending on what you choose. It only costs 1pt more per model than a simple extra hand weapon so I opted for it though I'm not sure what use it will end up being.

The Leadbelchers, at the back on the left, are also going to be interesting to fight with. They're the only ogres with shooting and they do put out a lot of shots, an artillery dice each, but they then have to reload by standing still for a whole turn which is a big sacrifice. They can however use their cannons as clubs at any points so it's not like they become useless.

Necromunda Figures

I've been slowly building up my gang in Necromunda as the game advances. I really enjoy the RPG aspect of it with each of the members advancing in their own unique way. I started out modifying each of the figures as advancements came along but I soon realized that was no a great idea as it took a lot of work and would reduce the re-usability of the models should the character die. Instead, I am now creating new models for every situation. Anyways, here they are:


The guy who looks out of place on the right is a Ratskin scout, a hired gun, who I'm planning on using. He adds the possibility of getting a new territory after each game I win. This could be quite lucrative once I get more guys and it would allow me to actually sustain a larger gang. There are three juvies in the back with pistols and knives, two of them with las pistols and the last with an auto-pistol. The outside back figures have lasguns with the one on the right having a scope attached. There's another lasgunner in the middle left who has a medic pack from the modifications early on. The rest of that row consists of a gunfighter with two pistols, a plasma gun which is currently one in a million (i.e. no ammo rolls), and a shotgunner who, in the current gang, has rapid fire for the shotgun and marksman which gives him a 27" range. The last two in the front row are the leader with a chainsword and plasma pistol and a heavy with my version of a heavy stubber who I don't actually use right now as he was captured and sold into slaver after my third game.

The little white lines on the bases that you can see in the front are to determine facing. This is important for a number of things including overwatch. A unit on overwatch can fire at anything that moves within a 90 degree arc. This is one of the more advanced aspects of the rules we're hoping to get started in the game now that we have the basic mechanics down. I've also ordered some interesting terrain from here which should spice up the game a bit more.

The GW manager at my store and myself tend to be overpowering other people playing so I'm thinking of starting over with my gang. This won't be hard since the numbers of my figures has been increasing and has a good variety to it. I will probably keep the current sheet for The Jau, my gang, to play against him and later on against other in the store, once they improve their gangs a bit. Most of the other players barely even have their figures much less any painting done so I feel fine re-using the figures I have made.

Best modeling ever

The Sandpit from Sam O'Hare on Vimeo.

Kill Team Tourney

Today was the day of the kill team tourney at my game store. I managed to get the body of my venerable dreadnought completed this morning so I took that.

First game was against an ork player who brought 15 shoota orks with a missile launcher and a nob with a power klaw. In the first turn his missile shot but it blew up harmlessly on the armor of the dreadnought. In the second turn, the nob made a dash between cover but I managed to catch him out in the open and blew him away. At his point I need to take a break from this story and explain something. For Tanks!giving this year, Games Workshop authorized the creation of 100 sets of dice for Southern California which, in anything run by GW, would be honored as Rending, even if the weapon does not normally have that rule. My opponent had a set of those dice. Now back to the story. Third turn, the mob of orks which had been dashing between cover at the edges of the board all rush out and open up on the dreadnought. It came down to the last guy on his last shot who scored the much needed six followed by another six. The damage roll came in at 5, which I promptly asked him to re-roll as a venerable. The second vehicle damage roll came in at a 6 and so my first round ended with a giant explosion.

Most of the rest of the games weren't as exiting and I did end up beating him again in the final. I ended up winning but more on that later. There was one other interesting game against an Imperial Guard player in which my dreadnought was humping a pillar trying to avoid his melta guns. That game ended up coming down to single point which, if it had gone another way, would have ended up with him winning. It was a single melta gun shot on my dreadnought as he dashed to take out the rest of the IG units.

Once I had finally one I found out my prize options were and also, why my venerable dreadnought was out on a kill team mission on his own and here it is:


My venerable dreadnought was out, on his own, rescuing his venerated battle brother who had been captured and who all others believed lost.

I'me going to try using my cellphone camera for pictures for now, let me know what you think. Here is the venerable dreadnought who saved his battle brother today:

I still need to do some more work on him like highlights and such but his body was the rush job in the two hours this morning before the tourney.

Camera Batteries

My camera has run out of batteries and I'm not sure where the charger is so until I find that there won't be any more pictures. I did get to play two games of Necromunda yesterday and I already got some nice skills and a piece of armor. The gang make up changed around a bit too and probably will again when I get to chance to play some more.

Full Deathwing Command

I decided to take out the rest of the command squad figures and take a full group photo and here it is:


I plan on line highlighting the rest of the squad eventually and then possibly making some sort of display for them. They unfortunately ride around in the Land Raider for most of the game so they don't get seen that much. They are however fantastic for roll over to an objective with the Crusader pattern Land Raider blazing away with it's guns and them popping them out at the last minute, hitting a unit with a flamer, and then assaulting which usually clears out the objective completely by killing them all or making them run.

Deathwing Honor Guard

I finally got two things done that I had long been thinking about. They are the upgrades allowed to terminators when you take Belial in your army the first of which is a banner and the other upgrades a model to an Apothecary with a narthecium/reductor. Here they are:


Unfortunately my list doesn't really have the space to allow for these so they're primarily for display purposes right now but I may be able to fit them in at higher point values. I tried to make the bit off the back of the narthecium look like a vial of fluid and sort of managed it though not exceedingly well. It was my first attempt and I was copying it off of a picture. I think it would work better with wet blending so the attempt at bubbles and shine would not stick out as much.

Necromunda PiP

I got some more work done on my Necromunda gang today even though I wasn't feeling great. I decided to go with a black under fabric and green carapace though it doesn't actually count as carapace armor. Here they are:


I have no idea what other colors I'm going to use yet accept for boltgun on the weapons. I was probably going to paint their shoes brown and a lighter and yellowier green on some of the details like bandannas and stuff. I might then continue with that spectrum and do some yellow details as well such as some of the gems I left on. I was then thinking either khaki or brown for sheaths and pouches. The sheaths for sure but the pouches could go either way.

Necromunda WiP

People at my game store are starting to play some Necromunda so I decided to put together a squad. Here they are so far:


I used Eldar Guardian bodies for them to emulate the suits that they wear. Some of them look a bit odd for now but they should look better with a bit of paint. I like how they turned out. I had to make some of the weapons like the Heavy Stubber and an autopistol. I should be able to get a game in on Monday so we'll see how they do. The four in the back or Juves with pistols. The one on the far left has an extra pistol and the guy on the right has frag grenades. The three in the middle are Gangers with a shotgun and two lasguns. The shotgunner has a backup pistol, the other two have nothing besides knives. In the front, the guy on the left is the Gang Leader with a Plasma Gun, Chainsword, and a backup pistol. The guy on the left is my Heavy with a Heavy Stubber and a backup pistol.

I tried out my scout Kill Team again yesterday and it didn't go great. The scouts have too low of BS to hit often enough to make the single shot sniper rifle worth it. This becomes the case especially when you're taking on large numbers such as IG.

1500pt Empire construction

I finished assembling models for a 1500pt list. Here they are:


The fire wizard will replace the generic wizard I built before, at least when I choose fire anyways. I still need to decide on the weapon to give my outrider champion though but I don't think anyone will mind for right now. The flagellants will be interesting to see in action and likely run interference for my newly strengthened gun line. I'm worried to see how the rocket gun works out since it's so prone to failure. I've heard it's devastating...when it works. Tomorrow a few of us at the store are going to hopefully be starting a Mighty Empires campaign so I'll get to play with my new, fresh faced force.

We are also thinking of starting a Necromunda campaign. That is the first time that and Mordheim have come on my radar and I'm very interested in them both. I'm still reading the rules for Necromunda right now but I'm excited to give it a shot. It's more of the small squads combat. Speaking of small squad combat, I have tried running my Venerable Dreadnought as a Kill Team all on his own and he has faired quite well. His record is 4W/2L and the two losses were more or less tailored to taking him out so I'm not so worried about him. One of them was a unit of the Eldar guys who are made of fire and anything they do is melta based which really messes with me. Most anything else I can survive against but a solidly placed melta shot really screws with me. I still need to decide if I like Infiltrate or Move through Cover as his USR more.

Scout Sniper PiP

I worked away on one of my scouts tonight. I think he turned out pretty well with a few exceptions. Here he is:


That was my first attempt at camo and it worked out much better than I expected. One half of the face is perfect and probably the best I have ever done but the other half is rather disappointing. Over all though, I like the model a lot so far. There are a few remaining touch ups to do which I should be able to do tomorrow and hopefully get some work done on the other scouts as well. Maybe I can get my dread and a few other bits primed as well.

I got a chance to play a kill team with naught but a Venerable Dreadnought and it was impressive. Once all the worrying ranged weapons were taken care of the melee began with only grenades being able to do any damage to me. Considering it was a 1/324 chance of doing anything what so ever, it went slowly but steadily in my favor. The Space Wolves and Imperial Guard steadily died off and failed their leadership rolls. I think it's something I'm going to have to look at further to test out for the tournament in a couple weeks. It could potentially be very weak if I don't manage to take out the heavy weapons right off the bat but otherwise it is heavily in my favor. It's a lot like my deathwing army in that respect, potentially very weak if played badly or dice are against me but can go quite well too.

Venerable Dread

I finished putting together my venerable dreadnought today. Here he is:


I chose to go with the terminator helm as it ties him in with the rest of the deathwing force. I also chose the concave shoulders and I got to play around with the fully assembled right arm, the ranged arm. It is really well designed to allow for weapons to be swapped easily and without any need for magnets. I still need to figure out how to be able to swap the storm bolter and heavy flamer on the melee arm. The model is a great one and I am very exited to paint him as well as use him in battles.

In the background you can see the assembled horses for my up and coming squad of Outriders for the empire. I'm hoping to get them finished as well as some flagellants built by tomorrow so I can fight on the fantasy leader board with 1500pts. I already have my deathwing army done for the 40k leader board.

Choices, choices

I got the new plastic Venerable Dreadnought today since I pre-ordered it and I need to start deciding on what I want to do with it. The kit comes with a lot of options and it's a bit overwhelming. The first of which is the arms:


There are three different shoulder choices with the options shows there and a list of famouse battle as the base options. I have opted to not have any of the names showing in the places I can avoid it, it's just not what I want for my ven dread. I don't like the top of the left most shoulder but I like the rest. The top that I like the most is the one on the far right. I'm not sure how bad the names showing up behind the arches is going to be so I'm a bit hesitant about that. The center one is the best over all but not the best in any area. There is a down side to the two on the left that I would also have to magnetize the ammo containers over the squares you see. That's another reason to lean towards the right most arm. I'll probably end up choosing that one. Along the top you can also see the bits for the sweet new power fist. I'll have to magnetize the heavy flamer and storm bolter if I want to swap them out though I never do so far. Feedback would be good on that.

Another tough area of choice is the sarcophagus and head. Here are some choices I've put together so I can personalize it a bit more:


The upper left corner has the side panels I intend to use but I have to choose the head and if I want a sarcophagus cover. The head options are a hood like the upper left and lower right and the terminator helm like the upper right and lower left. I like the idea of the terminator helm as it connects the dreadnought to the rest of my deathwing army and since the Dark Angel venerable dreadnoughts are meant to be those terminators who were entombed, it makes sense. The hooded head would tie the dreadnought in with the dark angels feel a bit more. I have a couple other heads in hoods, some of them helms underneath which might make more sense. There are also some helms with Dark Angels iconography on them which would distinguish the dreadnought as well. Choices, choices.

Deathwing Update

I've been getting bits of progress done on my deathwing for a while, nothing big enough to really warrant a full update until now. Here's the progress:


I have a second shooty squad part way through painting on the right. Most of them are just glued on accept for special equipment such as the assault cannon, and chainfist. the sergeants sword is also magnetized though that's more for packing than for swapping.

The third shooty squad is made up of the bits in the fore ground. I have the sergeants body and the assault cannons body put together but I forgot to include them. I think I will probably put this squad together like I did the second shooty squad because not all of the storm bolters and power fists really need to be magnetized and I don't really have the magnets for that right now.

After the success of the sergeants face for my assault squad I realized that a face was a good way to distinguish them and I have started to do that. You can see the second face on the sergeant of the assault squad front and center. That squad is fully magnetized and only needs to be based to be ready for priming. I built them up the same as the other assault squad but I will be able to change it around if I need.

On the left is the newly primed land speeder from the ravenwing attack squad I'm putting together. He's a bit points heavy for the standard make up for my deathwing list but I want to give the deepstrike list a shot and the land speeder gives some fierce fire power. I also chose it as an option for Apocalypse games to be used in a formation with some whirlwind tanks. I am in the process of building the first of the tanks for that formation as well.

Since I have 1000pts of empire put together that has moved to the back burner. I also got a bit sick of painting so I switched away from the kill team for now. There is a Kill Team event going on this Saturday which I hope to make it to but we'll see. I don't really know how well the squad will work but we'll see.

Inquisitor

I got some more work done on the inquisitor and got him done, more or less. feedback on areas that need work would be good. Here he is:


His psycannon could use some freehand highlights on the black sections. He's definitely not my best work but he looks pretty good. For some reason he came out shiny, not sure why. The face is also lack luster, I think I should have watered the paint down a bit more. I was a bit worried about the two different arms on him but it seems to have worked out more or less. His base also needs to be painted and I'm not sure what I'm going to do with that. There are a few larger rocks on the base which I can't decide if I want to paint them grey or simply do some highlights. If I painted them full grey I would highlight with white on them. I'll work on the rest of the scouts later but they'll be assembly line so it will go faster than a model per night.

Kill Team PiP

I've been working on getting the Kill Team painted up. I was doing the scouts assembly line until I got distracted by the Inquisitor. He's coming long nicely though, the washes should make him look much more dynamic. Here they are:


I'm not sure I have the paint to do the cloaks for the snipers and rocket launcher but I'll figure something out. All the figures still need various colors as well as some details but they're coming along well. I'll probably freehand highlight the armor once I use washes on the rest.

Kill Team WiP

I haven't been posting much but I have been building furiously. I finished 1000pts of Empire and managed to get a game in with them today. They survived though they didn't do so well. I have also been growing interested in the Kill Team scenario from the new Battle Missions book which is coming out soon. I have assembled my team and here they are:

I haven't yet worked up a complete backstory for the team yet but I've been working on it. They all went together pretty easily they do have their individual characteristics which a like. The Inquisitor worked out especially well. The list for the kill team is as follows:

Inquisitor
w/ carapace armor, bolt pistol, CC weapon, and psycannon {eternal warrior or stealth}

Scouts
Sergeant w/ PW and Melta-bombs {FNP}
Scout w/ ML and Camo {tankhunter}
Scout w/ Rifle and Camo x3
Scout w/ Shotgun x2

The full team must be less than 200pts and you have the option to give three different squad members a different Universal Special Rule each. I haven't decided on the USR for the Inquisitor yet but I'll figure it out by playing. I'll post info on the empire list and the lack luster performance later in the week. I also hope to get a Kill Team game or two in soon as well.

Empire Contruction

I've gotten a decent amount of work done today on constructing my Empire amry. I've gotten half the swordsman done, all the knights and handgunners as well as the warrior priest and general. Here they all are:


The army is shaping up nicely and I've worked on getting them based as well. All the horse bases still need it but the foot soldiers are good to be primed. I need to decide how I'm going to prime them however. Black would be good for the metallics but white would make the colors pop more. So far I'm thinking I'll prime the knights black since they're mostly metallics and the foot soldiers white as they're more colorful. We'll see if that's what I stick with. I'm also a bit worried about the knights and managing to get them to fit rank and file. I plan on pinning them first so I may be able to adjust them a bit before the final gluing. I might also prime them before I put them together so I can get all the bits. They may not even go together then for packing reasons but we'll see. I may end up getting some Battle Foam to pack all these guys in.

The deathwing has kind of gone on hold for now though it should think about getting another squad of them done soon as the game store I go to is starting a 1500pt leaderboard for all three games. Not sure my empire will be even close come March but I could be ready with my terimes much easier.

Warrior Priest WiP

I got some work done on modeling the warrior priest this afternoon. I also got started on putting together some swordsman and handgunners. Here's the warrior priest:


I'm a little worried about him fitting in rank and file but I'll do what I can to fix that once I get some other guys together. I think the robes turned out pretty well. I still haven't mastered green stuff by a long shot though. I used some of the bits from the generals and some from the flagellants. He looks more or less right and should be at least a semi-unique leader fro my small starting force.

I've managed to get the front line of the swordmen done. I do have to say once again that empire has much smaller and fidelier bits than the space marines do, especially terminators. Here's the front rank of swordmen:


They look pretty good though it took some work to get the warrior priest to fit in. Only three times more to go and I'll have my first unit for the empire done. These figures are not as annoying to put together as the knights I started before. I plan on putting the handgunners together next and then I can continue to put the swordsman together.

Slowdown 2.0

I spent last week trying to find a job so I didn't get too much hobbying done. I have a couple projects on the table right now. I've been working on getting the terminator models build for a 2500pt list and that's going pretty well. I have about 5 more models to put together and as many to magnetize and base before I can prime them all. It will end up with 5 squads, two of them assault and the other three as shooty squads. Those points will also include two Raiders, Salmac, and either the Ravenwing squad or a Dreadnought and another Raider. I'll probably test it out with the Ravenwing squad first as I have that all put together and ready to be primed and I want to test out their usefulness as teleport homers.

Also on the table I have most of the Empire box still to put together. The Knight horses are almost done and I've been deciding on what Heros I want to include. I also decided on building a 20 man squad of swordsman as well as a 10 man handgunner squad today. I'll probably invest in a box of Free Company men as a detachment for the swordsmen so I can test that system out. One thing I know I'll want and will definitely pick up is one of the Empire Great Cannon/Mortar boxes. I played with the few dwarfs I have yesterday and it was a real joy to blast away with the cannon so I wanted to get that same thrill in my Empire army. I borrowed a cannon from the store to play with so I had 2 and that was pretty reliable so I may try and fit that in to my list though I might try a mortar as well as they're much more effective at large unit blocks with their large blast template.

Once I get those few units together I should have enough for a 750pt army once I model my warrior priest. He's the model I am most exited about. I'm modeling him from the generals bits from my box. My plan is to models a robe for him out of green stuff. The robe and a hammer as what really differentiate the warrior priest from any of the other figures. I am also going to grab a few bits off the flagellants sprus I got in the box, they have a lot of religious symbols. This should be a small army which is both legal and should allow me to start getting a feel for the empire fighting style.

The Empire!

I, in my infinite wisdom and distraction, have decided to switch my Fantasy army to Empire. I got to play a small game with my Dwarves in which I realized they do not fit my style of play as they're very slow and, as someone described, all the do is survive for the whole game. The Empire allows for more versatility and much more movement as well as allowing most types of armies. Balance is quite possible as well as a gunline or a knight army. The knights are what I started putting together first as they were the ones which I knew what I would do with. They take a while though, I've manage to get half of them done so far. This doesn't sounds so bad until you learn there are only eight knights. Here's my newly cluttered working area with the knights as well as parts for the Volley and Rocket gun:



I got the Empire Army box they had this out for this Christmas which has an impressive starting army with a lot of variety. It also has the impressive standard which many people convert to be a banner for the Deathwing and which I've been considering doing that for. Here's the box:



I could also buy the White Lion chariot from the High Elves and convert it to the impressive chariot/alter for an Arch Lichter. This would give me the lion bits I've been drooling over for my more advanced conversion of Belial. There is actually a cape bit on the knight sprues which has a cat face on it, I think it may not be meant as a lion but could well serve as one, a female at least so I may attach that to the current model to spruce him up a bit.

There are a few things which are getting me exited about the Empire, one of these is the Detachment system. This allows for what are called child units to back up parent units. The child unit must be equal to or less than half the size of the parent and is allowed to back them up in a fight depending on how you choose. They can either fire on a unit that charges the parent, counter charge a unit which charged the parent, and charging with a parent unit when they charge. In the charges, the child is allowed to hit to other unit in the flank which negates many advantages for close combat resolution.

The addition of magic is something I think I will also enjoy. I intend to run a Warrior Priest, which is a great hero, for a couple of reasons. First of all, he's a pretty strong addition to the power of the army in combat as well as the fact that he has magic to add as well. He has a smaller range of spells to draw from but they're all quite interesting and add much but he also adds a dispell dice to my pool which I found useful from the Dwarves. A warrior priest also allows my flagellants unit to be a Core unit instead of a Rare unit which means I can also take an interesting gun or a steam tank! The flagellants are an interesting unit which would tie up a powerful unit for a while as they won't break under any circumstances and might do some good damage as well. Enough about interesting units though, suffice it to say I'm exited about my new army and completely distracted for now.

I did however hear that my game store is going to be running a leader board on Sundays for the next couple of months with possible prizes if enough people participate. If I remember correctly the point value is 1500 so that shouldn't be hard to get up to and would be a fun way to get some games in as well as trying out my Deathwing army. I have the models built for it but not painted so I may try and paint them soon though the Empire building my take president.

Chapter Feel

I've been thinking a bit about the general feel of my army and the possible iconography to include on their armor. I really like the background of the Dark Angels as well as the Deathwing army format so that's absolutely something I want to stick with. I also find myself drawn to the Black Templar though due to their crusade format and the added details on their armor so I've been trying to join the feel of the two armies. The Disciples of Caliban are described as a very mobile army, constantly on the hunt for Fallen Angels as well as Cypher in specific. This means they are basically on something of a crusade already. The idea of a hunt also appeals to me. I could then have a number of 'hunts' named after the Fallen which was captured and perhaps have a specific symbol for Cypher which I could include on the armor of some of the models denoting how many times they have been on the hunt for Cypher.

I'll have to look up different Fallen Angels as well as brainstorm different hunt symbols. It strikes me that the Fallen themselves may suggest symbols themselves though so we'll have to see. I also need to look up again how to print your own transfer sheet or work on getting better at painting small details because the i have yet to paint the Disciples symbol, which is on the side of the Land Raider, on to any shoulder pads.

I probably won't get any modeling or painting done to day. I've been needing a break and I have errands I need to run.

Ravenwing Sergeant

I finished up the test model for my Ravenwings which also happens to be the sergeant. Here it is:


It took some extra time to decide what I wanted to paint where but on the whole, I like the scheme I came up with. I was debating painting more green on the bikes but the other areas are a) hard to paint not black and b) I liked the salute to the original Ravenwing which is where the idea of the metallic edges as well. He's the only one with the flag at the back and the robe, same as the normal marines I had been working on.

I'm not sure if everyone has heard of the Blood Angels leaked codex. It's a good looking codex with a lot of interesting units, heros, and rules. One of the most interesting is the new transport available, the Storm Harbinger. A pdf of the codex is available over here.

1000pts

I finished up the last squad for 1000pts last night and here it is in all it's glory:


We'll see how well this works once I get a chance to play it but I am quite happy with the models. Here's a close up of the assault squad:


Despite the doubt of how useful the squad will be at 1000pts, I am quite happy with how they've turned out. The sergeant turned out well too. I was worried about the face and I was never sure how well that would go but it turned out well. The leather across the front also turned out well. The lightning claws and power weapon went well too.

Now to decide how to proceed. I have another squad of shooty marines which might be good to have around as possible replacement for the assault squad but I also have another Raider, a normal one this time, and I also have the Ravenwing assault squad. We'll see what I decide to end up doing. I think I'll take a couple days off to get some none modeling stuff done as well as preventing burnout. I'm also selling two older models of mine here and here to see how much money they go for.

Deathwing Assault Squad

I did a lot of work on a second squad of terminators today, an assault squad this time. Here they are:


These have a lot more to them, the work is more intricate. They're going to look pretty good when I'm done or so I hope. They're going to in the Raider with the commander who I named Salmac. The six terminators plus the two watchers should be an impressive sight. The metals took a long time and I can only dread having to do another four lightning claws and a power sword. That's it for today.

Photos

Victory! I managed to set up my camera to get some better pictures and here they are in all their glory.

Deathwing Command:


Deathwing Squad:


Dreadnought:


Land Raider:


Squig Marker:


The key to it is to set it to be extra sensitive to light which picks up all the little details as well as setting it to be the correct type of light so that the colors are balanced correctly.

Squad 1

I finished the first of my Deathwing squads today and it was easier than I expected. Here they are:


The assembly line worked out well and with an audio book playing in the background, it really ate up the hours. I also tried out a new power weapon design which I really like. I blended the blue and white to get the gradual change, or tried to at least. I like the new pattern for it and I did this on Belials sword as well. I might have to re-do the feather on the assault cannon as well as the rubble on one of the models but besides that I'm pretty happy with them and I think they're definitely tabletop quality at least.

I also took pictures of the dreadnought with it's various load outs. The arms worked out great. Here it is:


Not much to say about that accept that I'm happy to have the options. I did much more detail on this one than any of the ones I got from the Blackreach set and I'm very happy with how it turned out. On both of the two groups of models the worst sections are the flat green and black, they're the least interesting. I did dry brush on both but I don't know that I see it having done enough. Who knows though. I also need to work on the lighting for the models. Maybe I'll read up on how to do that better for next time.

Deathwing Assembly Line

I had some fun finishing up the dreadnought today. There's a great variety of arms which took some creativity to decide on a design for them to fit the rest of the army. In the end I have to get down to painting the soldiers of my army. Here's my work for today:


I finished up all of the Dreadnought. I'll put up some better pictures of it later, I just wanted to get something up for now. There are a couple of different set ups for it. The one displayed is for assaulting as it has a lot of shots to put out as well as the heavy flamer on the Close Combat weapon. The other is for close tank hunting with the Multi-melta and the CC weapon to take care of things if they get too close. The last is a long range set up with the Twin Linked Las-cannon and Rocket Launcher. I think most of them are more or less the same price accept for the Heavy Flamer on the CC weapon as well as the Rocket Launcher.

The termies are going to take a lot of work, I've started with the first shooty squad as the assault termies are going to spend most of their time in the Raider. The cyclone terminator was mainly just for fun but I also wanted to give the weapon a shot to see what it was like. It's nice extra range, double most every thing else. I'll probably work on finishing the termies assembly line style though maybe not tomorrow as I'm going to try and make it in to the shop to get some game time in.

Intro of Lt. Lathrop

So I just got added as a writer in this blog. Unfortunately, I don't happen to be as good of a P&M guy as Lightstaver happens to be, but I feel like I am the better strategist. And when our third friend arrives on this blog, well... he isn't a great P&M guy, and I best him more often than he does me... but he's orkier than both of us, and that has its merits... and oddly enough some pretty powerful in-game ones.

Fortunately, me and LStaver are both part of the Imperium... so you wan't have to deal with us fighting in character all the time.

Yea but, here I am. What is to come? I plan to throw down some battle reports in the near future. Hopefully I'll bring home a victory or 2 for Emperor. I have won or tied all of the 1v1 matches I've played... although I seem to always get hammered in team battles. Maybe cause I have lots of big guns? Hmm... Regardless I need to get out and start fighting with some of these models, and against new people.

I have a lot of P&M stuff coming. I have decided to change the color scheme of my army to something a little more traditional. I personally think like the colors look nicer, and most of my models need a good do over. I have most of the infantry that I will ever need, so now is as good of a time as any. I am planning on doing each section one by one. Starting with uniforms, then skin, then armor, and finally boltgun and bitz. Hopefully my camera will be up to snuff, and I'll be able to get some nice shots up. I'll probably just photoshop them so I can keep up with Lightstaver though. I will see if I can get together a nice squad of Veterans for some preliminary pictures before I start the revamp of the army.

Dreadnought body

I got some good work done on the dreadnought last night and into this morning. I haven't even started on any of the arms but the body looks good. Here it is:


Once again I have scroll work on which to write a name but no name for him yet. That's lower on the priorities though. The washes I put on this morning have once again done their miraculous work and made everything much more dynamic. I really like the plethora of wires running into the main chamber.

I still haven't done more work on anything else but I might today. I've been avoiding spraying anything as it's cold and rainy and that may wreck havoc on the paint drying. I basically have a number of things to do new though for painting. There's the entire Terminator army or to continue on the arms of my Dread.

Slowdown

I've been taking it easy for the last couple of days, doing small bits of work periodically instead of the mad dash of things before. There are a few things currently on my mat which I've been working on. Below I have a picture of them:


The largest and most obvious is the Land Raider which I have been slowly adding detail to. Among the small bits is also the multi-melta which I need to attach. I forgot to when initially building the Raider so I'm adding that on now. I've also dry brushed, painted the lenses and metal areas, as well as putting the washes over the metals. I still need to gem each of the lenses and that's about it for now until I add the multi-melta.

You can also see the Land Speeder I've been building. This is going to be for the Ravenwing Attack Squad. I magnetized the chin mounted assault cannon but I couldn't figure out how to make the Heavy Bolter swappable for the Melti-melta. Since it's attached to the small railing the situation gets tough. I can remove it later if I figure out how to do it.

Behind the Raider, you can see the new Dreadnought peeking out. I've started to paint him a bit. I finished the green on his body already and dry brushing is probably next before I start on the details.

There are also numerous Terminator bits laying around which I can work on getting put together and magnetized. That's more of a long term plan as I have three squad already put together.

Deathwing Commander

I finished assembling a speeder for a full Ravewing Attack Squad as well as doing a few more touches on my Raider. No pictures tonight but I may take some tomorrow once the Speeder is primed. I do have some new ones of my deathwing commander as I re-did a few odds and ends on him. Here he is:


I have quite a few things I can still work on but they all seem a bit daunting right now. I may take tomorrow off as I'm feeling a bit sick and I want to make sure I don't burn myself out too fast.

I got a bit distracted by this. I looked into some of what he's done and I started getting some ideas for a whole new commander but that would be longer term once I have more of an idea of how to do more modeling with sculpting and posing plastic minis. This set presents its self as a possibility to add some interesting lion motifs to my commander. This works out well as their primarch is The Lion as well as the fact that the Disciples symbol is also a sword wielding lion. There are a few other models with some lion aspects to them but they're metal so it would work out less for kit bashing.

Deathwing Primed

I managed to get three squads primed and ready to be painted as well as the new dreadnought. It took a while since I messed up on some of the magnets but I managed to correct it. Here they are pre- and post-priming:

The new paint station is working out well. It had a place to stash everything and makes the area look much more organized. I think the dreadnought may be the next thing I choose to paint though I've been working on the Land Raider a bit as a break from magnetizing and basing. I finished the decal on the other side of the Raider and now I've also finished painting on boltgun metal. I have to look over it to make sure I got all the spots as well as painting on gold and using washes.

Paint Station

I didn't really get much painting done yesterday beyond a bit of bolt gun metal on my Land Raider but the biggest thing was a new paint station:

On there you can also see the workings of some new terminators, that's my third squad, and a dreadnought which is the first basic one I've made from scratch. Making it from scratch means I could incorporate a few Dark Angels bits I had laying around such as the face place and the leg plates. This also now means I have a complete set of dreadnought arms so I can make any variety I want instead of being restricted to the multi-melta and storm bolter fist. On my trip to get the paint station and dreadnought I also got a whirlwind and some more termies so I can further fill out my army with a variety of units. I'm slowly working towards a higher point joint wing army which would be bikes and termies. This would allow for accurate deep strikes for my termies since all Dark Angel bikes carry homing beacons, as well as making some interesting apocalypse formations.

Raider Decal

I got quite a bit done today. For starters a dove in headfirst to tank painting. There's a lot I still need to do on my first tank but I decided to dive right in and do a large decal on the side once I'd finished a rough paint job of the area where the decal would go. Here it is:

I think it turned out pretty well. I still need to do one on the other side as well as finishing up the rest of the paint job bit I've managed to keep the green and black of the rest of the army as well as claiming the color scheme with a large symbol. It's actually the first time I've drawn the Disciples symbol and it's kind of scared me to paint it at such a smaller scale on the shoulder pads of my marines or termies.

The other thing I finish if the lightning claw option for my commander. The rest of the arm, besides the claws themselves are rather easy and nothing new to do. The claws themselves are a different story and will likely have to be re-done once I learn how to do them for real. Anyways, here he is with both options:


The last thing I finished was the squig objective that I had molded a bit with green stuff. He too turned out really well with washes truly making the teeth, body, and mushroom shine: