Back to Ultramar

So now I have played a few games of 6th Ed I beginning to see what is working and what isn't. From what I have seen and experienced Shooting is very much the way to go. 

With this in mind I have decided to go back and take a look at my UltraMarines, I became a fan of the 40K poster boys after reading the Graham McNeil novels and had a pretty kick ass army back in the days of 4th Ed. However when 5th Ed came out, and with it, a new Codex the basic Marines seemed to take a bit of a hit and Close Combat armies seemed to  be the new thing (thats when I started my Orks). But now 6th Ed is with us I think it might be time to bring out the Blue fellas again.

I am going to start with the list below mainly as I have all the models, except the fliers, so its going to be easy to get it up and running. The Libby is my HQ of choice, the new powers are pretty cool and can give the Marines a nice boost. The troops will be two basic Tactical Squads, these guys can dish out some nice anti-infantry shooting as well as some decent overwatch if charged and can split into Combat Squads if required to give 4 Troop units. They will both run with Razorbacks with twin-linked Las-Cannons, these can take out vehicles, MC's or move a Combat Squad around. The main attack unit will be the Terminators, tactical Terminators are the monkies nuts these days, with a 2+ save and power fists they can mash anything that comes close. They will be the main objective takers. The rest of the army is there for fire support, the Thunderfire Cannon can target large troop units, the fliers have both infantary and vehicle destroying abilities and the Devs can targat vehicles and MC's. The Dreadnought can also target vehicles and has some anti-infantary firepower also.

I think this army has enough to deal with most things, so all I need to get is the fliers and do some touchups and it should be ready to go.

1850 Ultramarines (Space_Marines)

HQ - 140
Space Marine Librarian (140)
Smite; Force Dome; bolt pistol; Terminator armour; storm shield.

Elites - 380
Dreadnought (145)
twin-linked lascannon; missile launcher.

5 Terminators (235)
assault cannon; chainfist.

Troops - 540
10 Tactical Marines (275)
plasma gun; plasma cannon.
• Razorback: twin-linked lascannon.

10 Tactical Marines (265)
meltagun; missile launcher.
• Razorback: twin-linked lascannon.

Fast Attack - 460
Stormtalon Gunship (155)
Typhoon missile launcher.

Stormtalon Gunship (155)
Skyhammer missile launcher.

Stormtalon Gunship (150)
twin-linked lascannon.

Heavy Support - 330
Thunderfire Cannon (100)

5 Devastators (230)
4× lascannon.

1,850 points

Grey Knights and Dark Angels.

Hello folks....

Its been a busy week hobby wise with lots of new releases and models in the process of being painted up. I have managed to get a few more games of 6th Ed in and I am still struggling to make the Orks work. I have come to the conclusion that units of 12 in Truks just don't seem to cut it in 6th Ed, with Overwatch knocking a couple of bodies down on the charge and then generally going last in combat by the time the boyz get to hit they don't seem to have the number of attacks to do the job in the first round of combat and they really need to hit hard in the first round as in the second round they are at reduced strength as the Furious Charge turns off. I am going to try a couple of things, perhaps put in some larger units of Shoota Boyz or maybe try large units of combat troops in Battlewagons rather than Truks, but with vehicles being a little easier to take down I am not holding my breath.

Will give it go, but with some recent releases I am thinking about parking the Orks for a bit and trying something new. I have played the Orks for several years and I think I might need a break from them, I reckon a new Codex isn't that far away (well I hope) so I might park them unit then. This has also been partially initiated by the release of the new 40K box set. I have been considering going back to Marines as I have an Ultramarine army in a draw, but the army structure isn't great to work in 6th so it would need some new units, and the paint job is looking a bit old, so I think I might start a new Marine army. The new box contains some nice new Dark Angels models and this is where I am going to start. Dark Angels have a lot to offer in terms of variety, I can have an army of all Terminators with Deathwing, an army of Bikes and Speeders with Ravenwing or a mix of everything with basic Marines. I could also just use them as a basic Marine codex army to get some flyers in there too.


I am initially considering a Deathwing army as Tactical Terminators have had a nice boost in the new addition, anything with a 2+ save and a power fist is now pretty awesome. In 1850 I can get 7 units of Terminators with various weapon load outs and thats going to be tough for anyone to get through. So with this in mind I painted up a test model to see of I could get the Bone armour scheme to look nice, I can't play an army unless I think I can paint it well and it will look good on the table top.

I started with a White undercoat, I then washed the model with a black wash to give it some shading. I then mixed up a pot of paint that was a 50/50 mix of Bleach Bone and White and painted the model with this colour leaving some of the shading visible. I then washed the whole model with a watered done Devlen Mud to add a bit more shading. Once this was dry I lightly drybrushed the model with White to concentrate on the edges, then there was a final wash with a very watered down Sepia. This gave a nice depth to the armour. Once dry I picked out the various details, iconography etc. I am pretty pleased with the way its come out and I think a whole army of these fellas would look really nice. Not sure on the army setup yet, am very tempted to just go with units of Terminators and not bother with any vehicles at all, but that will be the starting point and then I can mix in other things if I think they are needed.

Also this month I have finished off the first unit of Grey Knight Paladins for the Salute game, next will be painting up Draigo to go with this unit in the Stormraven. Next will be another unit of Paladins, not sure if we are going to use them as we need to play test the scenario first.

Until next time....

Grey Knights

Hello all.

Well its been a busy few weeks on the paint station. In preparation for the game at Salute next year I have been painting up some Grey Knights, we still have a long time to get them ready but I thought I would make a start as I intended to start a GK army when they were released and after purchasing a few models never got round to it, so two birds with one stone as it where.

Not really sure what the full composition of my army will be but for Salute we need Draigo and some Paladins so its going to be something along those lines. I like the idea of Draigo, Paladins and Terminators flying onto the board mounted in Stormravens so thats where I am going to start.


I have owned a Stormraven since they were released, again with the intention of painting it up right away but ..... well you know the rest. I actually found this a bit of a challenge as its got a lot of large flat surfaces so getting it to look shaded and not just a big block of colour was hard, and silver isn't easy to make look good, I think it looks ok but could be better. I airbrushed Bolt Gun metal over a black undercoat and then washed in Blue, and a watered down Black. I then hand painted over it with Chain mail a couple of times and then used a Blue glazed over the whole thing. I then painted Chain mail over it again but leaving some of the blue hint exposed. I highlighted the edges in Mithril Silver and picked out the detail. I then painted some areas in Red to break it up a bit. I also realised I had stuck the the tail on the wrong way round, but if I had tried to break it off I doubt it would have broken clean, so I have left it. Question is when it comes to building a second one do I do the same thing so they look the same?

So now we need a unit of Paladins to go into the Raven. The unit is assembled and undercoated Black, I also base coated them with Bolt Gun using the airbrush at the same time I did the Stormraven. They are then washed in Blue and watered down Black, then highlighted up through Chain mail and Mithril the same as the Raven. Details of the scrolls, ornaments etc were done using a palette of Gold, Red and Bleach Bone, these colours will run through the army to keep it tied together. The first Paladin is done and the rest are on the way. 

As well as making progress with the GK's I have also painted another model, this is actually a Dark Elf Sorceress from the Warhammer Fantasy Battle range but I am going to use her as an Inquisitor. It was kind of inspired from the female Jedi from the Revenge of the Sith movie, the pose is very dynamic like she is casting a psychic power and with a few modifications she will fit right into a Grey Knight army. I clipped the top from her staff and added the top from a Nemesis Force Stave, I also added a Servo Skull to the base. Standing next to the GK's she looks so small, but fits right it and looks really cool. I haven't decided on her retinue yet so will take some time over this, but as a model for an Inquisitor I think she looks really awesome. One thing I do when building armies is use things that look really cool, not necessarily what is best in terms of game play, for me its all about the cool. 

Until next time...

  

Wraith Engine and "the list".

Hello all...

I found myself in a situation, that most hobbyists have experienced at some point, where I have so many projects on the go I am in danger of not finishing any of them. So many ideas, so many models that I felt I was drowning a bit and not really getting anything done. Especially with the new 6th Ed of 40K out, the potential for new armies and projects racks up. So I decided to use a method my girlfriend uses for such a situation and one that I mocked her for - I made a list.

The idea of the list is to write down the things I have half finished for various armies and actually get them done before moving onto something new and buying more models. For example I am two Mournfang, two Ogres and an Ironblaster away from finishing my Ogres at 2400 points. Of course no army is ever finished and I will get more for them but this will give me my basic 2400 list and it will all be painted. I have a Cryx Wraith Engine that I got, built and then half painted before moving onto another new idea and it has sat on my table half painted for months. I started a Grey Knight army and then moved onto something else. So, I have made a list of the things I am going to paint first and I will get those done. Now painting something because you have to often leads to resentment of said model, so I am going to alternate. The club is going to Salute next year to run a game and as part of this I need to paint some Grey Knights, so I am going to alternate between a model on my list and some Grey Knights, this also means I will get to paint that Grey Knight army that I have bought already and has sat around in boxes since release day.

So number 1 on the list was the Cryx Wraith Engine. I managed to get one of these pretty much on release day and eagerly stuck it together and undercoated it. I based layered it and then it sat there for months looking at me. Once I had done my list and got cracking with it I was done in a couple of days and now I have a Wraith Engine to use in games, and it was all down to the list. So to my girlfriend - I apologise for all the times I mocked you for list making (don't think she reads this so I won't be getting any "I told you so's").

So on to the model, I wasn't too keen on this when it first came out, but it has grown on me and now I have one all painted up I actually really like it. I went for my basic Cryx scheme that I have used on the rest of the army. After a black undercoat it was dry brushed in Boltgun and then over brushed in bronze. The armour was painted in a dark Grey and highlighted with a lighter Grey, the whole model was then given a Black wash. After this had dried I did some highlights on the silver, painted the cloth parts Brown with a Bleach highlight and then washed the whole thing is a watered down Green wash. I think it looks pretty good and fits perfectly with the rest of the army, now to go crush some hobby.

Until next time....

Abersoch Surfer

So after one of my recent trips I managed to get a couple of days away for a bit of a surf in Wales. As I mentioned before Abersoch is one of my favourite surf spots, it can be a bit hit and miss in terms of waves but when its on - its on. I managed to hit a day when it was sunny and the waves were awesome, alas it was only one day and then it preceded to rain constantly destroying my camper van awning in the process. Well after the session I took to the beach with the camera in the hope of getting some nice shots of the scenery and surfers. the picture I captured hopefully shows both.

This guy was just walking up the beach after a surf and managed to capture the scenery hopefully capturing some of the remoteness of the location. I made some adjustments to the image and surfer did come out a little darker than I was hoping bit I think the overall point comes across, one surfer seeking the perfect wave on four miles of remote beach.

From the Eye of Terror

So I have finally got my hands on a copy of the 6th Ed 40K book and one of the new things it introduces is a new feature to army building - Alliances. Now there are two ways of looking at this: -

1. What are the best combinations I can think of from different armies to crush hobby and win.
2. What cool combinations of army will look awesome and what modelling opportunities will this give me?

I am most defiantly in the number 2 camp.

Many years ago GW would release the occasional book that was almost a campaign style book, it would have some scenarios, new units but it would also have some alternate army lists, one of these books was the Eye of Terror and it contained a new army list called The Lost and the Damned. This was basically a traitor style guard army but it also allowed you to take a squad of Chaos Marines for example, it was a great list and I built a pretty affective army out of it. My army had a Nurgle theme and I made units of guard by mixing the Cadian and Zombie kits, it looked great. But alas the book phased out of use and my models became redundant, I could have expanded it into a full guard army but other things came along and they got packed away....... until now. With the new allies rules they can come out of their hiding place and take to the table again.

I am thinking along the same lines as my original army with Nurgle as the theme, so the main army will be Plague Marine based and then I will have an allied force of Guard using my Zombie Guard models. The new Chaos Codex is round the corner and is rumoured to have Cultists as a new unit type so I may not even need to use the guard allies to get the models into the army. If this is true then I might be able to squeeze some Daemon allies in. I have a Daemon army that hasn't seen much action yet as they turned out to be a bit rubbish in the latter half of 5th.

So with the new addition out there appears to be a lot of opportunities modelling wise, I am just going to wait for the new Chaos Codex to come out before I fully decide which approach to take. My Orks will be getting some attention too but I need to play a few games with them first to see how the new edition has affected them.

So below are a few pictures of my Zombie/Nurgle/Guard army.

White.

Hello folks,

White is my nemesis. I rate myself as a good painter, not GW professional standard but above average, that is until I try to paint something white. I discovered this when I started to play Warmachine a few years ago. My first army for Warmachine is Menoth and their primary colour is white. The models are awesome and I really like the armoured religious nutters and I think the white really suits their theme and it was something I wanted to try and paint. Now a really well painted white army looks amazing but trust me, it takes a lot of work.

Approach 1.

When I started the Menoth force the first models I  painted were started off from a black undercoat and then worked up through various stages of greys to get to white. This takes a long time and on some of the detailed Menoth models thats a pain. Also as you are applying a lot of paint it can dull some of the details unless you do it properly and water down the paint. The first model seen here was painted with this method and I don't like it and I think you will agree its not up to my usual standard. It also took me about two years to finish, I started it, got bored and then painted a whole Cryx army and half an Ogre army........ and a Dystopian Wars fleet.................. and some Killa Kans before finally getting back to it to finish. The advantages of this method if you get it right are that it looks really good and the white will look solid and you can get some nice shading towards the edges of the armour. If you get it wrong then it can look rubbish, I think am half way with this result, if you don't look too close then it looks ok on the table.


Approach 2.

After struggling with the first approach I tried to do something a bit different with the next model. GW had just released they new Washes so I thought I would put them to the test. For this model I actually undercoated it in with white spray, second step was to paint the all the base colours on in one go. I then drowned the model in a black wash - almost in a "dipping" style. After this I then painted over the white again with a brush and also when over the base layers again before then highlighting everything. I think the look of this model is so much better. The reason it works is that you are starting with the white straight away, the "dipping" phase does the shading and then the second phase white paint looks better going over the white undercoat. The model looks cleaner, brighter and tidy. I was very pleased with this method and the new GW washes really help with this look.

Since I painted this model GW has revamped the whole paint line, and now include a White Base paint which is supposed to cover better, I have tried this on models and whilst it doesn't live up to the hype it does cover a lot better than the old GW white which, as we all know, was rubbish.

So now I have finally found a painting method for white which does provide results, whilst I still don't think they are up to my usual standard I do think the methods I have found look good and a whole army painted in this way should look pretty good on the table. So after three or so years I might actually get to finish the Menoth force that I always wanted.

Unti next time....