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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Watchers sculpting

I finished up the sculpting for the pair of watchers as well as the little squig objective. The folds of the draping robes are hard to do but that turned out alright for a first try. I added the finals bits, the banner and the helm, as well so once everything is dried I'll primer them and start thinking about painting. That probably won't happen until tomorrow to make sure that the green-stuff has hardened. Here they are thus far:

Green stuff is a bit more challanging than I expected but it's fun and much easier than trying to carve something out of spare sprues. Also, the tip that the store manager gave me was really useful: put a little bit of chapstick on your tool and it will stop any sticking.