#009 - yet more changes

well there they are, my lovely sisters of battle... with two squads of stormtroopers... and now two exorcists... after a few conversations with other players, i decided to make the list a little more punchy, and took out the infantry platoon - having 10 squads able to hold objectives is great, but the lascannons were unreliable and their armour not so good... sure, if i could take more guardsmen i would, but it would be better suited as an allied company for apocalypse...

so i dropped the 382 points the platoon had cost me and did more number crunching to come up with, minus the 4 sisters with meltas i have on order, the picture above: canoness with 10 sisters, 15 sisters, 15 more sisters, 10 storm troopers in a rhino, 10 more storm troopers in another rhino, 6 dominion in an immolator, an exorcist, and a second exorcist... two tanks with badass firepower, four fast assault units, and another 41 models with power armour to play the mid-field... will it stand up to other armies? theoryhammer says yes, but saturday i play test it...

it is true that im using whirlwinds as exorcists, but with some minor adjustments they look similar enough to pass... i turned the turret plate on top around so that the mount is in the center of the tank, like the predator... with the missile pods glued so they face forward rather than up, it gives the illusion of an armour-hunter (like the real-life M901)... using the 5-a-side pieces, they look like high capacity missile tank, which is exactly what the exorcist is... i had no desire to use the pipe organ of doom because its not in keeping with the "no nonsense" attitude of my army - my sisters are the wrath of the emperor's will, and they do not stand for such cheap decorations... i could have ordered the conversion kits from forge world, but it would cost me $46 on top of $60 for the rhinos, and that's just not cost effective... my forge world order will be icons instead, since they are MUCH cheaper...

so with 1848 points on paper, i now have a smaller list to paint, which means ill be guaranteed to have them done by the 17th... /post

#008 - off day

so here they are, the latest finished products of my obsession with little toy soldiers...

with the warhound for my beast army, i decided on a mangy, unhealthy look... despite the flash, the pic came out rather true to form - he's more yellowed on the skin, but the rest is dead on... all 20 hounds will be done this way...

for the guardsmen, its a shame the camera flash kills the color - its the best i could do without digging out my tripod and studio lamps... they have, more or less, deep forest camouflage owing to the fact they come from a heavily forested world (hyrule)... the 8th platoon (as previously mentioned) just happens to be stationed at the schola progenium the sisters and stormtroopers are trained at...

i didnt get a lot of painting done today, mainly because i had errands to run after i woke up... im still tired now as i type, and will probably be sleeping soon... /post

#007 - holiday shopping

so another christmas season over with, and hooray for that... last night's dj spot in nyc went rather well, and we've been asked to come back jan 29th, so hooray for that as well...

today, however, was spent being all commercial - i dropped $120 at the RT on models for both my sisters and my beasts, the latter of which is now completed at 2250 pt... the sisters will only require an exorcist, but that will have to wait until i get some more moneys...

with that said, i have assembled a second inquisitorial rhino, 10 more battle sisters, and a herd of 20 gors and ungors this evening... i have also, after a massive gap in time, constructed two m:tg decks (tournament 60 with sidebar)... the last time i played magic, ice age was the newest expansion... the last time i played, the only other kids that played were asians, so i naturally lost big time on that... however, my dj'ing partner (5witcH.HitteR) has gotten me back into the game, and i now feel a rivalry coming on...

im unsure if im going to game or just paint tomorrow... probably paint... /post

#006 - massed infantry

so now that i have the color scheme down, my guardsmen need to get some paint on them... which is fine - ive got the time this week... the problem, however, is i have 73 single models and 8 heavy weapon teams involved in this process... a lot of caffeine and unhealthy carbs have flowed through my veins today, but in a single 24 hour period (minus sleep, errands, bathroom breaks, and hitting the laundromat) i have managed to flock all 73 single bases, ink all 73 bases, and apply the first color (out of 8) to all 73 bases...

right now my paint table looks exactly like the picture - all the models sitting there waiting for the next step in the assembly line of painting goodness... the breakdown of the entire deal is as follows:

56 standard issue cadians with lasguns
7 vox operators
5 lascannon teams
3 autocannon teams
2 grenade launchers
2 plasma guns
2 melta guns
2 flamers
1 officer with bolt pistol / chainsword
1 officer with plasma pistol / power sword

on another note, i also started doing concept work for my fantasy beastmen army, finding a nice way to handle the skin of my ogre bulls (yes, ogre bulls) and fully painted a single warhound (which came out looking rather nice)... id like to have this army done by my birthday, so ive got six weeks from now to make it badass...

then on yet another note, my reaper mini arrived today - a young woman in robes with an open book... she will be used to represent my character in dark heresy, who happens to be a tongue-bound psyker... im actually looking forward to this game most of all... nothing says fun times like "scooby doo meets the holocaust"... /post

#005 - warriors of hyrule

so i had been wondering how i was going to paint my amassed collection of guardsmen, when i decided to pick up a random model and start playing with colors until i found something i could live with...

i started with grey fatigues, but couldnt find a combination that worked well without looking like the stormtroopers... so i changed tactics and started looking at camouflage, but needed something that didnt look like cadians... then it hit me...

for the gun crew on the plague tower, i used catachan green on the clothes with a camo green drybrush... then i started thinking more about it... i have a lot of earthy colors that i havent used, well, ever yet, so why not see what they could do...

thats when i found a combination i liked, though i couldnt figure out why... rotting flesh with brown ink brushed over it on the fatigues... catachan green with camo green drybrushed on the lasgun and armour... boltgun accents on the lasgun and personal kit... elf flesh on the face and hands...

so i stared at the finished model for a while and then it hit me... i just painted link, from the original legend of zelda...

then it hit me further... my guardsmen will be from hyrule, a temperate forest of a world not unlike the pacific northwest... and on this planet, there is a schola progenium known for training both adeptus sororitas and inquisitorial stormtroopers... and there i had it - the theme of my army... pics will naturally follow... /post

#004 - boot (in my face) camp

im not going to lie, today's game wasnt pretty... i updated my sister list based on two games against tau and found myself playing against orks as part of my training regimen... and got my ass handed to me...

i ran a canoness, 2 squads of 12 sisters, 2 squads of 10 stormtroopers in rhinos, a full infantry platoon with 5 lascannons, vindicare, 6 dominions in an immolator, and an exorcist...

he ran 3 mobs of 30 boyz, 10 lootas, 10 burnas, 2 meks, 3 looted vehicles, 2 dreds, and 3 coptas... all 90 boyz were shootas, not sluggas, to boot...

needless to say my list was woefully outnumbered, not to mention outclassed by a veteran player... im glad i got my ass kicked, however, as it gave me some insight as to how i should update my list:

1. while the vindicare is nice, its literally hit or miss... the 2+ to hit is nice, but its the 4+ to wound that makes him difficult to keep dead on...

2. my infantry platoon needs to be more mobile, so i dropped one squad and 2 lascannons (total 3 left), and kit the command squad and a 10-squad for mobile assault... the lascannons can stay back with the exorcist and pound away, but i need a midfield stopgap, and thats where they'd come in handy...

3. more sisters = more bolters, and more bolters = weight of fire... im taking advantage of the larger squad limit and beefing two squads up to 15 each, while adding another squad of 10 on top of that... throw enough rounds at the enemy and he will fall sooner or later... and if he doesnt, ive got acts of faith to throw in on the charge...

4. rhino rush the stormtroopers with the immolator and get that wall of death moving asap... 2 flamers, 6 meltas, 2 power swords and a plasma pistol should have the right amount of punch i need to drop vehicles, weaken squads, and tie up a large chunk of the enemy long enough to get the rest into position...

granted, this is all in the realm of theoryhammer, but its a good starting point for the next round of training - i need another army to go up against... perhaps some marines... /post

#003 - training season

the mission: assemble and paint an 1850 pt list by january 17th...

the army: witch hunters with imperial guard allies...

so this mission of mine started today, sometime around 4 pm... after suffering a loss to tau this weekend, against my friend doug's tournament list, i figured out which units needed to go and what to add into the list to make it more badass... im trying to paint at least one squad a day so i can have a finished army well before the tournament...

the only hindrance i can see with this goal is new jersey winter... between the 15 degree temperature, and the heavy gusts of wind, it was a difficult task to prime the models, as well as get the matte varnish on, but i managed (see pic above)... granted, its not the best representation, but you can get the general idea... what you can see in the pic is a stormtrooper squad, sergeant with power sword, all four special weapons, and a vindicare assassin...

i decided, since theyre inquisition soldiers, to keep them as bland as possible - theyre stormtroopers, not cheerleaders... i glued fine sand to the bases and primed the models black to start with, then drybrushed the "camo" in codex grey, as well as the bases for the rubble effect... third, boltgun metal accents on the guns, carapace, helmets and backpacks... the final color is a custom off-white i made for my flamers of tzeentch, which has just a hint of blue, and that went on the targeters and visors... for the bare head of the sergeant, i watered down elf flesh and kept making passes over it until i got a consistency i liked... with the plasma gun and power sword, i used a custom purple highlight i made for my daemonettes, which adds a nice contrast to the severe color scheme they have... on the flamer and meltagun i drybrushed bronze metallic over the ends of the guns to show corrosion...

as far as the job i did is concerned, im proud of it... my sisters of battle will have white armour and flaming orange hair, so its a fun contrast to see played out on the table... as for the guardsmen i will include, im not sure how i'm going to paint them... the problem is i will have a complete platoon with 5 heavy weapons, so i need to figure out a simple enough scheme... that will come later when everything else is done though... /post

#002 - it continues

so this is my baneblade, as promised... it took 8 hours to assemble and paint, and it was, until the construction of my plague tower, my largest project... so far it's record is 2 apocalyptic explosions, taking out the enemy squads that killed it with love and shrapnel... it did, however manage to get its big cannon off and murder lots of people, so its not all bad...

thats the problem with big stuff in apocalypse - theyre instant fire magnets... as soon as you put a super-heavy or gargantuan creature on the table, it draws fire from every tank and heavy weapon within range... which is great for infantry-based armies like i use, but it kills too little before it inevitably gets hounded... i think thats why i built a second super-heavy model for chaos, just to have a plan B on the field at the same time... which, again, is why i keep my armies infantry-based instead of relying on vehicles... /post

#001 - the beginning

so i was told a while back i should start a "gaming blog" to keep track of all my projects and what have you... at the time i thought it was a silly idea... now that im in the middle of several projects and several games, it seems to be a good idea... so what have i been up to in the past month?

first and foremost, the image to your left is my newly completed nurgle plague tower for 40k apocalypse... it stands 15" from treads to tip, and consists of a chaos land raider, a tower constructed from basswood, a forge world imperial heavy mortar, and a lot of spare bits and green stuff... the best part about nurgle models is the messier you make them, the more accurate the depiction... hooray being in character!!

this is the second super-heavy vehicle i have recently completed, the first being my iron warriors baneblade... pics will follow for that at a later time... on an interesting note, i have lost interest in making little models now that i have gotten into more epic creations... let's face it, when you spend 3 weeks planning and constructing a 90 scale foot siege tower, assembling a squad is no challenge...

that is why my next project will be a true-scale warhound titan made from basswood and plasticard for my imperial forces... i have the plans i found online, and already tested them using posterboard and painters tape, so all that's left is to make the scaffolding and cover with plating... this will be in preparation for a massive imperial army that will include mechanicus forces, and possibly imperial flyers when i get some money up... /post