Sunday, February 28, 2010

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:
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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.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

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:
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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.

Monday, February 22, 2010

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:
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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:
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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.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

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:

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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:

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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.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

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.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Ravenwing Sergeant

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

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

1000pts

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

Monday, February 8, 2010

Deathwing Assault Squad

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

Sunday, February 7, 2010

Photos

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

Deathwing Command:
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Deathwing Squad:
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Dreadnought:
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Land Raider:
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Squig Marker:
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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:
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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:
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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:
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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.

Saturday, February 6, 2010

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:
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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.

Friday, February 5, 2010

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:
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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.