Nice ride....

Hey folks,

Have been a bit quiet on the Blog front lately but fear not the brush has been busy. I have a few projects on the go at the moment, mainly 40K related as 6th Ed has really got the juices flowing. As I mention in a previous post I have extracted the Ultramarines from the draw they were living in and dusted them down to take to the table once again, they have had one outing so far which resulted in the Eldar getting a right good spanking. 6th is definitely more of a shooting game and my existing army was very much a shooting orientated build, all it needs is a few bits painted up and its fully done.

So all I had left to paint was: -

• One Razorback
• Two Storm Talons. 

I was going to go with 3 Storm Talons but in the end I decided to stick with two and switch the third one out for a Defence Line (with a Quad Autocannon) and a Scout Squad.  The reasoning behind this was that I thought I was a bit light on Troops choices and also the Defence line is great for sticking the Tactical and Heavy squads behind and I also have the benefit of the added air defence with the Quad gun. So this week I have managed to finish the Razorback to go alongside the other one in the army. I went with the Razorbacks over Rhinos as they give an extra couple of heavy guns and if I Combat Squad the Tac units the Heavy weapon half can stay behind the Defence line and the other half can jump in the Razorbacks to go after any objectives. I fitted both Razorbacks with the Ultramarine doors form Forge World as they just look awesome on the model and give some detail to the otherwise flat areas. 

All I need to do now is finish off the two Storm Talons and the army is done. After this I'll build up some other units to switch in and add some variety but this will be after other projects are done, the main aim right now with the Ultramarines is to have a decent fully painted 6th Ed army, although I do have a Storm Eagle winging its way from Forge World which will no doubt take up some of my time in the next week or two. It's such an awesome model, it is 300 points (which is a lot) but is just too awesome not to use on occasion. To get it into the army I just need to drop one Storm Talon and the Dreadnought and thats bang on 300 points. The imagine of the Storm Eagle coming on to the table being escorted by the other Storm Talon is something to really look forward too. 

The other ride that has seen action recently is my Vendetta. I have been experimenting with some Guard allies for the Orks, as I had some "Chaos Guard" from a Lost and the Damned army I built years ago (See previous Blog Post) and thought they would fit in well. What the Guard provide is some much needed anti tank guns which is what my Ork build struggled with. A Vendetta is awesome for this with three twin-linked Las-Cannons zooming onto the board. My opponent then has the dilemma of either trying to take it down or worrying about the Ork horde that is about to punch him in the face. In the first game I tried it the Dakka-Jet and Vendetta both came on in the 2nd turn and just caused carnage. I am trying to get the second Dakka-Jet into the list as if they both come on in the same turn and I Waaargh them they can just remove whole units from the table. The Vendetta is painted up to match the Chaos Guard so its all brown with rusted metallics to show that it hasn't received much love from its owners. 

Until next time...

Deathwing Command Squad and other bits.

Hello fellow plastic crack addicts.

Its been a busy hobby week and with several projects on the go the paint station is covered in models in various stages. The "List" from a previous post has been abandoned in favour of doing what I fancy and it seems to be working out ok.

With 6th Edition getting more of my play time I have finally decided on the direction of my various armies.

1. For the Orks I have settled on a contingent of Imperial Guard allies and they performed pretty good in their first outing and they will soon be joined by a Vendetta.

2. The first squad for the Deathwing has now been finished (Only 6 more to go).

3. I have finalised a list for my Ultramarines and am just finishing up a few bits to get them up to 6th Edition readiness. They were my army of choice in 4th Ed but didn't seem to work so well in 5th so were confined to a box, but I think in 6th they will be pretty good.

Also on the paint station is a unit of Bile Thralls and Epic Deneghra for my Cryx WarMachine army. The Kraken is also stuck together and will be the next thing to see the paint brush when the 40K stuff is done.

Following on from my post about the iPad and the amazing quality of its pictures I thought I would try out the video option, I think that works pretty well to. I am going to try and get hold of a turntable so that I can get decent 360 video of models to put in various Blog's.

A close up of the squad Apocathory.

 The Squad Standard Bearer.

Inq Coateaz (The was the first FineCast model I bought when FineCast was first released). 

A squad of Purifiers I painted up when the GK Codes was released. 

Until next time.... 

Deathwing and iPads....

Hey Folks...

I am trying out posting some Blog pictures using the camera on my "New" iPad (thats an iPad3 for normal people) just to see what they look like. Although I have a pretty funky camera the iPad camera is actually really good for taking closeup pictures of models, one slight pain is that I can't post pictures to the Blog if accessing Blogger from the iPad, this does seem a little odd, therefore I have to plug the iPad into the Mac and transfer the pictures over and then access Blogger from the Mac.... oh well no bother.

So I have taken a couple of pictures of some Deathwing work in progress. These models make up the command squad and well accompany Bellal into battle.

So here they are, not bad for an iPad I have to admit, and actually better than my "proper" camera.

Until next time......

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....