Change of pace

I'm taking a short break from my Space Marines to tackle something that's been languishing on the shelf since Christmas: Witchfate Tor!

First of all, this model is a bear to put together... There are quite a few tips out on the interwebz about how to make it a bit less painful, and the most helpful were the use of rubber bands, and the appreciation that it takes a LOT of trimming and sanding to make the wall pieces come together.

The floors are a total mess, but I'm not too worried about that since they won't be used too often (cue ominous music).



The walls are chock-full of detail, and I'm chomping at the bit to get some painting done on them.


My first step was to prime the whole thing with black spray paint, and then the walls got a spray of Granite Krylon paint, taking care to spray from an angle so I wouldn't get too much in the crevices.

Once that was done, I took some Badab Black and washed the skulls, and some Devlan Mud in between the stones, and heavily at the base.
I also picked out selected stones with Deneb Stone to provide some variety and texture to the walls.


Oh, and of course I did my standard black basecoating for all metal surfaces. I'm going to try some rust effects on the rings along the outside, and for the gates I think I'll try some glowing effect, since it IS supposed to be a magical tower.



I'll have to figure out a bit of spot color here and there, but overall I like the stone coloring, since it makes it feel like a "real" tower in my humble opinion...

Let me know what you think... Have you put one of these bad boys together?



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Enter the Grey Knights

No, I'm not starting a new army. This is actually a quick recap of my second WH40k league game, which came against a Grey Knights army.

My opponent from my first game gave me a heads up that this would be the army I would be facing in the second game, so I read up as much as I could about the GK units and abilities, and I set out to counter them as best I could.

My revamped list was as follow:

HQ - SM Librarian x 2
With Force Dome and Smite

Troops - SM 10 man Tactical Squad in Rhino with Meltagun and ML x 2

SM 5 man Tactical Squad in Razorback with TL Lascannons x2

SM 10 man Scout Squad with 5 sniper rifles, 4 shotguns and upgraded the Sgt to Sgt Telion

Heavy: Vindicator x 2, one with Sgt Chronus

5 man Devastator Squad with 2 ML, 1 Lascannon and 1 Heavy Bolter

Elite: Dreadnought x 3
- one AoBR Dread
- one Dread with Heavy Flamer and Assault Cannon
- One dread with TL Autocannons and CCW

The mission was Pitched Battle with 5 objectives. I won the initiative and deployed first. I set my scouts 3" from the center objective nearest my table edge.




One Rhino and the AoBR dread on my left flank to rush an objective, a Vindy and Razorback to the right flank, with the Flamer Dread, and the other Vindy up the middle to draw fire.



My devastators were deployed in a building inside my deployment zone which meant that I could camp them and cover the rest of my units from that position right off the bat.




The remaining Razorback was deployed two feet from the left table edge.

I put my librarians each inside one of the Razorbacks and made sure that I had "coverage" over most of the battlefield with my Psychic hoods to try and disrupt psychic abilities.

I reserved my last Rhino, thinking it would be able to come on later and try and contest an objective.

My opponent was able to use one of his ICs to grant pretty much all of his units the ability to be Troops, which turned out to be my downfall.

He placed a Vindicare assassin and a Psyfleman dread on his closest center objective, a Land Raider with GK termies to my left, a regular 5 man squad on my right, and a combat squad interceptor squad hunkered down in cover. And a Storm Raven with 5 interceptors on my far right.

His HQ was Mordrak with a squad of Ghost Knights and a Librarian in Terminator armor deep striking first turn.

He attempted to seize the initiative, but failed, so I got to go first and started executing my battle plan, with all my units moving into their Pre-planned positions. The initial volley of vehicle fire took out one Interceptor, but nothing else.

Fortune smiled on me early during my opponent's turn, as his Land Raider was immobilized on a crater after moving one inch. His assassin took a shot at Telion, but missed, which he would later regret.

His HQ squad teleported in behind my right flank and did their job by harassing my rear armor. To no immediate effect.

A lucky psycannon shot destroyed Chronus' vindicator's main gun and immobilized it, turning it into a stormbolter armed pillbox.

I managed to hold my own for three rounds. Holding or contesting 4 out of the 5 objectives.

My scout snipers killed the assassin, and held their own on close combat after being assaulted by the interceptors.

I managed to kill Mordrak and his squad by pretty much throwing my whole right flank at them. Thankfully he didn't get any reinforcements from his ghost knights.

My librarians frustrated his psychic abilities for a good while, and one of them even killed his termie Librarian with his force weapon. Force dome kept giving me a small fighting chance with some invulnerable saves, but I never did get to Smite anyone... I'll have to remember that next time.

In the end, his force weapons wiped out all my contesting troops, and the game ended at turn 5 with him controlling all of the objectives and having 13 KPs and me only having 4 KPs.

I had a lot of fun, and I think my preparation helped a lot, especially having a Pre-planned deployment strategy. If I played him again, I would definitely have a better appreciation for what his army can do, and I would have to come up with a way to bottle up his deep striking termies and not let them roll me up from behind.

My opponent was very helpful, and he gave me some much needed advice, especially when he saw that I was making a grave tactical error here and there.

So after the first month I'm 0-2 as expected, but I'm feeling more confident in my army and my grasp of the rules. And having no wins puts me in the bottom of the pairings where hopefully I'll be facing others of similar ability.

Now I get to keep painting and preparing...

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Orks:1 - Horns: 0

I have finished my first game in the WH40k league, and as I figured, I was soundly defeated.

My opponent fielded Orks. He had 9 Killa Kans, two mobs of Boyz, one in a Trukk, and a Warboss and Nobz mob in another Trukk.

I never stood a chance...




I did however learn a lot, which is what I was hoping for.

Things that I learned:
- Have a deployment plan.
- Know the rules for your units
- Ask questions about your opponent's units and their weapons.
- Let an Ork mob come to you, and focus fire on one unit at a time
- My dice hate me... They really, really hate me...

All in all, I had fun. After the umpteenth time I rolled a fistful of saving throws and saw a preponderance of ones and twos, I just started laughing. My opponent was great, he was very patient, and helped work me through the game mechanics.

Here are a few more scenes of carnage from my doomed army:



Photographic evidence of my one kill point. Two units of Space Marines killed an Ork mob that had assaulted (and popped) one of my Rhinos.




Two coptas outflanked me and proceeded to mop up my army from behind.




Brother Sergeant Chronos' last stand. Instead of falling back, I fired all weapons, and missed at point blank range with all four...




The final six survivors, minutes before the Warboss used them to lubricate his Power Claw...

I got some good advice from my opponent after the game concerning my army list, and he pointed out the most glaring tactical errors I made.

Not the most auspicious start to my gaming career, but if I can keep making new mistakes instead of repeating the same ones, I should do ok.

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Oh... I.C.

My first game in the 40k league is on Friday night, and I have tomorrow off, so I'll be able to spend some time finishing up my vehicles.

Today, I decided to focus on painting up my HQ choice, Cato Sicarius, since he's been in pieces this whole time.

Here he is, I still need to finish his sword sheath and the plasma pistol, and the detail on his banner, but otherwise, he is almost playable...




It was fun painting an Ultramarine. I did a Regal Blue basecoat, and then highlights with Ultramarine Blue, and extreme highlights with some Ice Blue... And if my camera were good, you could actually see it.

My troops are all orange basecoated, so they won't look completely boring on the table.



I need to finish the HB marine, and three Sergeants, but that's for tomorrow also. If I have time I will do all of their bolters and backpacks.

Oh, and the reason they aren't based, is that I have ordered some resin bases that haven't come in yet.... And because I'm a slacker...

Alright, that does it for now... Expect to see some "final" pics tomorrow...

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Rapid marine deployment

So I discovered two things tonight:
1. My painting ability and brush control have improved to the point that I can quickly block out colors on a Space Marine model with a minimum of mistakes, and a light, even layer of foundation paint.
2. My original color choice of Fiery Orange for my army doesn't quite do it for me anymore.

The second revelation was a product of the first, when, after I had painted up 8 marines in about an hour using Macharius Solar Orange as the basecoat, I realized that they looked better as a unit than my "finished" reference model that I painted two years ago when I first got into the hobby.

Thankfully, I realized that with the judicious application of a little foundation paint over the Fiery Orange, I could easily blend my original marines with the newly painted ones...

Of course it means that I don't have a single finished marine model, out of 32 needed for my army, but overall I think I will be happier when I redo them.

Here's a quick preview of the new guys:


And a comparison shot between the new, the old, and the one I have converted:


I guess the last revelation is that I need a photobooth and a better camera... Oh well... Goodnight!

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Light at the end of the tunnel

So tonight I finally am seeing the proverbial light. At least as far as the mech part of my army goes... As long as I don't think too much about the 22 Space Marines left to paint... Anyway...

Here's a group shot showing my progress:



And if you think you see some blue in the sea of orange, you must have spotted my banner...






So of the seven vehicles, two are 100%, my Razorbacks:



The two Rhinos are about 95%, needing just some paint on their storm bolters...



And the two Vindicators are at 90 and 80% from left to right...


And the Predator is still at 60%... playable but not nearly done.




This week's goal is to finish the vehicles, and assemble all the marines, that way my army can be played, even if it's not painted 100%...

How do you keep yourself motivated when painting? I know I struggle sometimes...

Until next time...

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Vindication

After a few days' rest, I got back at it, and finally tackled the Vindicator dozer blades and their freehand designs, and overall I'm pretty pleased, especially since they are my first real attempts at anything this ambitious...

So, without further ado, here is Invictus:




And a closeup of the banner design:


And Aeternum:




And a closeup:


Yeah, still not completely glued together yet.

You can see where I drybrushed the Boltgun Metal over the black that I did last time. I think it gives it a nice look for the "business end" of the tank...

That's it for today, time to pack it in...

Let me know what you think, do you like the freehand designs? Any suggestions?

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