Nurgle Inspiration Part 2

Hey folks,

Sorry I have been away for a while, I have been having a bit of a hobby break. I think its good to step away from the paint brushes for a while and recharge the creative batteries.

So whats happening? Well I crashed out of the 40K tourney I was playing in, my Quarter Final was against a Daemon army (OLD BOOK) that was designed to fight power armour and I got wiped. Flamers are just amazing, especially against a low body count power armour army. I thought I had a good plan to win the game but by the end of turn three I was pretty much done.

Nurgle Warband.

So that leads me onto what I have been up to lately. The new Daemon Codex is out and this has made up my mind on what I am going to do with the Nurgle models I painted up a few months ago. The new Daemon book has made mono God armies much more feasible so this is what I am going to do. The book has changed Daemons into much more of a horde type army, the basic Troop choices got a little nerfed in terms of abilities but have been reduced in points. What they lost in abilites they can get back through the use of Heralds with Gifts/Rewards etc. The new book doesn't have any immediate "must have" units (except Soul Grinders) and it really makes you think about the list. Of course going mono makes life easier but even then you have to really think about how you build your units etc. I have read through the book a couple of times and have an idea of the build I want, I just need to sit down and point it up.

What this does give me the chance to use is my ForgeWorld Plaguehulk, I bought the model when it came out at Gamesday a few years back, its a lovely model, basically a big Nurgle Daemon on a Soul Grinder chassis. I painted this using the same technique as the previous Nurgle models and I am really pleased with it. The skin is just a White Undercoat and then several layers of washes with some detail picked out. The metal is the basic Boltgun metal with a Bronze and Orange motel effect which is then washed. This gives a really nice rust effect. I will be getting second one soon which I will convert slightly to make it look different, maybe taking off the sword arm and putting the big Powerclaw on there from the plastic Soul Grinder kit which comes when you order the ForgeWorld model.

The rest of the list will be made up of large units of Plaguebearers, Beasts of Nurgle and a Greater Daemon. I am leaving the Greater Daemon to the end in the hope that GW release the rumoured new plastic kit. I would like to get the ForgeWorld one, but if there is a new plastic kit coming out I suspect it will be pretty awesome.

The club is running a game at Salute this year and some of my new Nurgle models will be making an appearance as part of that game. If your there make sure you come and say hello.

Until next time...

colossal Colossals

Hey Folks,

The hobby station has been a busy place in the last few weeks or so, mainly as I have lots of "things" coming up that I want to get models painted for and also because the pile of stuff to get done seems to be getting bigger.

Ultramarine Scouts

The first thing I finished this week was the Scout squad for my Ultramarines, these guys sit in the Landspeeder Storm and either go for a vehicle that's giving me trouble or hide somewhere whilst a unit of Terminators deep strike in to deal with the enemy before they grab an objective. In the first couple of games they performed really well and I am very happy with them. This leaves me with just the Predator to paint to complete the list I am using in the 1500 tournement at the club.

So since I wrote the above paragraph I have played my last group game against Tom and his Imperial Guard. It was a really tough game which I was on the back foot from right from the beginning. We were playing the Relic scenario which I haven't played before, I had a plan against Tom's Guard and then I let the scenario change my plan to the extent that I screwed myself I think. Tom played really well and his army is brutal. My original plan was to get the Terminators into his back field to take out the big guns but instead I put everything into trying to get the Relic and Tom just sat there an blew me away. I nearly pulled off a draw towards the end but Tom's rate of fire was just too much and he took the game 6-0. I like playing Tom, our games are always really good fun and always end up going to the wire. Top two form the group go through to the Quarters and I should be in second, so will see who I have to face next round.

Also released this week is "Death from the Skies" the new GW book with updated flyer rules, this came a bit out of the blue but I instantly went out and purchased another StormRaven to add to my Ultramarines army. This will look really cool flying about with the StormTalons and also gives me lots of flyer options with the Grey Knights as allies. When I paint it I will do my Forge World StormEagle at the same time.

I also stuck together all the models from the Flames of War starter box game. The models are pretty cool, the detail on the infantry is awesome for such small models and the tank kits are also really great. I have painted up a few of the German tanks and a couple of squads of the infantry and I am really starting to like the look of them, they are also very quick to paint, I found that doing some base coats with a wash and then a highlight was enough to make them look good. the tanks need a bit more attention but with the camo scheme I used (based on the advice in the stater set) it still only took a couple of hours to get four tanks done. My mindset with these models was to get them done quickly to a good gaming standard, not spend ages on making them look awesome.

Zee Germans

At the Brighton club day this month we decided to have a bit of a Warmachine Colossal bash. Several of the guys have managed to get Colossal's painted up so we thought the best thing to do was to have a big four player game featuring all of them, so 70pts a side each with two of the mighty machines. Michael and I took to the table with Mercs/Cryx and we faced off against Andy with his Menoth and Achilles with his Cygnar. Three objectives were on table with one of them disappearing after the first turn. I made a brave alpha strike with the Kraken on the Menoth beast after the Merc Colossal had knocked a few boxes off with its guns. It was a brave move which would have been game changing but after the dust had settled the Menoth Colossal was left with one damage box, this allowed the Menoth Colossal to take out much of the Cryx army in its own turn including the Warcaster. Eventually the Menoth machine went down which left the Merc Galleon to take on the rest of the Menoth army and the Cygnar Colossal.

The Galleon is a beast of a jack and managed to take out the Cygnar caster and knocked the Cygnar Colossal down to its last couple of damage boxes before the unbelievable happened. A lone Merc Trencher with nothing better to do walked up to the Cygnar giant and with an un-boosted attack stabbed the giant machine with a stick, he must have hit something important in the foot of the machine as it proceeded to fall over in a heap and the Mercs found a new hero. The winner came down to the last dice roll of the game, Andy needed to do the Merc caster 18 damage which meant rolling three 6's on three dice. Andy tool the dice in hand and rolled....6......6..........5..... cries of anguish erupted and the game was won by the Cryx/Merc combo. It was an awesome game and playing with all those huge models was very cool.  

The Colossals add a really nice new challenge to the game without being too overpowered, I think PP have got the balance just right, they are awesome against infantry but can still be taken down with some heavy jacks or a charge from some Weapon Manager infantry. 

Below are a few pictures from the battle, they are a little blurry as the light isn't fantastic at Gambit HQ.

The Kraken and Galleon line up

Kraken and Galleon target the Judicator

Judicator and Stormwall

So whats next? Well I have lots going on at the moment, firstly I need to finish the Ultramarines Predator and an Ageis Defence line, this will complete my 1500 Ultramarines list for the Hemel 40K tourney. After this I have a whole pile of stuff to go through, sticking the Makifaux crew together might be next so I can at least try and get a few training games in. Warmachine wise I have a whole bunch of Khador stuff waiting as well as some Skorne for Hordes there is also an Ultramarines StormRaven and StormEagle waiting....... plus the new Daemons stuff coming out next week. 

What I could really do with is some extra days in the week...... 

Until next time...

Ultramarines go forth.....

Hello hobby fans.

Well its been a busy few weeks on the Gareth hobby scene. Firstly the UltraMarines have had two outings in the tournament currently underway at the game club I attend in Hemel. On both occasions I am pleased to have come away with two victories.

To answer the question I posed in a previous blog I made up my spare points with a Land-speeder Storm carrying a unit of Bolt-gun touting Scouts, this unit was picked out by my girlfriend because she thought "it looked cool" and I have to say they have been awesome. Maybe a new way to build army lists? Push your girlfriend into a GW store and just ask her to pick random boxes on models.... seems to work.

Land Speeder Storm

In the first game they took to the field against the Tau, it was a fairly one sided affair in the end as in the first turn I managed to take out the Quad Gun and the main battle tanks, after this it was just a case of teleporting in the Terminators to clean up and the Scouts to zoom in and nick the objectives.

In the second game I faced a Marine Biker army, from my side of the table it looked pretty scary with all the T5 bikes zooming in. It got pretty messy but I managed to escape the worst of the shooting and a decent Vindicator hit on one squad and getting the Terminators into combat turned the game in my favour. The Tactical Squads were able to move onto the objectives whilst the Terminators cleaned up with help from the StormTalon and Predator. I also managed to get all the secondary missions (Line Breaker, First Blood etc...) Although the victory point count was high for me it could have gone the other way.

So I am pretty pleased so far, for your basic Marine list its performing pretty well. 6th Ed definatly seems to favour armies that can bring some firepower to the table, combat doesn't seem as much of an influence unless its being delivered by some 2+ save, power-fist carrying Terminators.

Painting wise I have been pretty busy, I like to play with fully painted armies if at all possible so I have been trying to get the list I am using in the tourney finished as I decided to use some new units. I have finished the Land Speeder Storm this week (although I need to do the crew still), that just leaves me with the Predator to finish and a unit of Scouts, they should be done before my next game. I also want to do a new Vindicator, the one I am using is the old Forgeworld kit and it's showing its age so once the army is done I might paint up a new one so it looks a bit better.

The Dreamer and Lord Choppy Bits

Its been a bit of a new games month as well, I have been wanting to get into Malifaux for a while so I have bought some models for that, you only need a few models to play a game so getting a "crew" ready for the table wont take long.

Flames of War is another system I have been looking at for a while, there are a lot choices when it comes to building an army which is a little daunting. But with the release of the starter set it makes getting into the game a lot easier. The box comes with enough models to build two armies to begin with so I have made the purchase and have painted up my first test model.




So here are the pictures....

Land Speeder Storm.

Flames of War. German Tank.

Until next time...

Tourney Tourment.

Hey Folks

The club I go to in Hemel is running a 40K tournament over the next few months, below is the army that I intend to take. I normally play games at 1850 and having to go down to 1500 was tough. 

My only concern is that I am a bit Troops light with only two Tactical Squads, of course they can combat squad to make four scoring units but only having units of five marines is risky. 

Firepower wise I think its pretty good and with the two Terminator units it has plenty of staying power. 

I have 145 points left to spend but not sure what to spend it on, its either: - 

1. Thunderfire Cannon and some Librarian upgrades. 
2. Defence Line with Quad Gun and some Librarian upgrades. 
3. Dreadnought with Las and Missile Launcher. 
4. Second Pred. 
5. Something else...... 


HQ: Space Marine Librarian in Power Armour (1#, 100 pts) 
1 Space Marine Librarian in Power Armour , 100 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (10#, 170 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 147 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Sergeant 26
1 Sergeant, 23 pts

Troops: Tactical Squad (11#, 260 pts)
9 Tactical Squad, 162 pts = 9 * 16 (base cost 16) + Plasma gun 10 + Plasma Cannon 5 + Sergeant 26
1 Sergeant, 23 pts

1 Razorback, 75 pts = (base cost 40 + Twin-Linked Lascannon 35)

Fast Attack: Storm Talon Gunship (1#, 155 pts)
1 Storm Talon Gunship, 155 pts = (base cost 130) + Typhoon Missile Launcher 25

Elite: Terminator Squad (5#, 230 pts)
4 Terminator Squad, 190 pts = 4 * 40 (base cost 40) + Cyclone Missile Launcher 30
1 Sergeant, 40 pts

Elite: Terminator Squad (5#, 205 pts)
4 Terminator Squad, 165 pts = 4 * 40 (base cost 40) + Heavy Flamer 5
1 Sergeant, 40 pts

Heavy Support: Predator (1#, 120 pts)
1 Predator, 120 pts = (base cost 60 + Lascannon (each side) 60)

 Heavy Support: Vindicator (1#, 115 pts)
1 Vindicator, 115 pts 

Suggestions welcome........

Nurgle Dilemma.

Hey Folks.

Following on from my recent Nurgle Inspiration post I have pretty much painted all the Nurgle models I currently have and I think they look awesome. So this brings me to a bit of a dilemma - what to do with them?

There are a few options : -

1. Build a complete 1850 Nurgle Daemon army.
2. Build an 1850 Daemon army with Nurgle stuff mixed in.
3. Build an 1850 Chaos Marine army with some Nurgle Daemon allies.

I would like to do an all Nurgle army as I think they would look really cool and, as we all know, I do like a good theme but from a competitive view point the army would be very limited and maybe a little boring to play. 40K is now very much a shooting game and in that respect Daemons are very limited. However rumour has it that there is going to be a new Daemon Codex out very soon which could change things.

A mixed Daemon army can be competitive and I have most of the models for this kind of build. I have mixed feelings about the mixed Daemons, the original fluff about Daemons that was written into the original "Slaves to Darkness" and the "Lost and the Damned" books explained how Daemons allied to certain gods would not fight in an army with Daemons from other gods, of course in the game that 40K is GW would be limiting people and potentially limiting sales if they kept this in place, but for someone who read those books and knows the background the mixed Daemon list still goes against that subliminal message in the back of the mind that Khorne and Tzeentch would never fight together no matter how good Fateweaver with a unit of Khorne Bloodcrushers sounds.

A Chaos/Daemon allies army could be cool, Plague Marines and PlagueBearers etc. I have knocked up a couple of army lists and I am not keen on the builds, you don't get much once you have factored in the points needed for the allies. There are some great combos, Plague Marines with Epidemius allied in is a great combination, also pile in a massive unit of Cultists and then when the Tally hits 20 those cultists are going to be ripping apart everything they come into contact with.

So..... many options there, I love the way these models look, the painting technique was a real eye opener for me, I tend to paint everything in a particular style and this was very much a different technique for me and I think it looks great and a whole army of Nurgle Daemons would look really cool.

I have other 40K armies, and those are designed to be more competitive, so I think based on this I am going to go down the all Nurgle route, it will be an army based on aesthetics rather than competitiveness and I will probably take my time in anticipation of a new Codex coming out in the near future.

So here are the models. 

Essentially the paint scheme is a White undercoat with various washes applied to the skin areas. After this the details are picked out in appropriate colours. Its really simple and very quick and it looks very striking. 

Until next time...

Release the Kraken!!!!!

So it's 2013 and Christmas is done. I managed to have a few days off over the festive period and finished off a few models and started some new projects to add to all the others that are on the go.

Recently I have been really getting into Warmachine, it's one of those games thats easy to learn to play, but to really master it and get good at it takes a lot of time. My Cryx army has been expanding nicely over the last couple of years and has just got a big boost in the form of the Kraken. The latest expansion to Warmachine - Colossals adds giant Warjacks to the game, these machines are huge and powerful but do rack up the points meaning the rest of the army will be a little light so you still have to be careful how you play it and it isn't an automatic choice. However, the model is just too awesome not to play on a regular basis. When I first saw the model I wasn't instantly taken with it, but once assembled and a bit of paint thrown on it I have come to really like it, especially when it smashes face and takes out other Heavy Warjacks in one go.

I have also painted up a new Warcaster for Cryx army - The Witch Coven of Garlghast, you can see from the picture below the sheer size of the Kraken next to the Witch Coven.

Also this month, also in a way influenced by the Warmachine Colossals release I have started looking at Khador as an alternative faction, at the moment I just have the starter set as I wanted to paint up a couple of the models first to see how they looked. The Conquest which is the Khador Colossal is one of the best model releases of 2012, so I am going to build a Khador army so I can get one. This will be a slow burn project and I will build/paint when I have some down time or fancy a change from other projects. So this is the first model completed, the test piece really. 

And finally this month I finished of some more Nurgle Daemon models, I am not really sure what I am going to do with these, maybe build my 40K Daemons up a bit, or maybe diverge into a Chaos Marine/Daemon army. I really like the look of these, the models but also the paint scheme and I want to use them somehow.

Until next time... 

Nurgle Inspiration....

Inspiration. Where does it come from? A lot of what I paint, the conversions that I do and the armies that I build tend to be inspired by other people, sure I have a few original ideas (the Squigoth Leman Russ being one of them) but I would guess most comes from seeing other peoples work. The simplest seed can often evolve into something different and that in turn may inspire someone else and that is one of the great things about the hobby we have.

I bought the Nurgle Daemon prince model from Forge World years ago for a Daemon army I was building (when Daemons were good) but I never got round to painting it as my hobby butterfly tendencies took over and no doubt I ended up doing something else. But I was reading this months White Dwarf and right at the back was a really small section about one of the writers trying a new painting technique out on some Plague Bearers. The technique was simple, white undercoat and the just using the new Shades to give it a Nurgle paint scheme. Wow I thought, those models look awesome and it was a technique I had never considered before. So I went upstairs and extracted the Nurgle Daemon Prince model from the draw he has been living in for a couple of years, gave him a white undercoat and got to work. I think you will agree from the pictures below he looks awesome and has inspired me to have another look at the Daemon army, its also shown me a new painting technique to add to my range. It just goes to show the smallest thing can inspire you to action and potentially a new hobby avenue.

Also this month we have been playing a lot of Warmachine at the club I go to in Hemel, as I like to play with painted armies I have again been inspired to finish a couple of Cryx models that have been sitting on the shelf for a while so have actually completed the Deathjack and am eyeing up the Kraken next.

It's been a productive month, and adding to the completed list is the second Ultramarines StormTalon which means my 1850 Ultramarine list is now finished. Of course no army is ever really complete and I have a few ideas for some additions. I am thinking of adding to the Inquisitors retinue, to get these models into the list I need to swap the two Las-Cannons for Missile Launchers in the Dev squad so those are the next things to paint up. I have also started work on the second Grey Knight Paladin squad for the game we plan to run at Salute next year. I have a suspicion that this may inspire me to complete a Grey Knight force in the future.

One other thing that I have found to help the inspirational juices flow is having a good tidy area to paint, as you may have seen from my Facebook post I recently gave my painting area an overhaul and have found that this has given my painting a new lease of life, if the environment is right then the results will come.

So if you are lacking in inspiration or motivation, take a look around at the next club day, look at the armies, models, lists of the other plays and see if something clicks to inspire you in your own work. It could be the smallest thing, a single model, a small conversion but it could lead to a whole new project.

Until next time....