Back from the Warp!

 

Well, it has been a while! I've been up to quite a bit over the last few months. As you can see from the picture above I managed to get the World Eaters all completed, the picture is of the full force, all 6000+ points of them all ready to do battle for the Betrayal Campaign weekend.

 

 

It's the first campaign weekend I attended at WHW, I had a blast, never done too well on the gaming side of life, mainly down to the amount of painting I had to do but was pleased with the end result. In the final pairs game we came up against a massed tank army with, off the top of my head, 9 Predators, 5 Land Raiders, 3 Vindicators, 2 Malcadors, 1 Typhon along with a fair amount of Infantry to go along with them. As you can imagine from looking at our army on the board we weren't actually that well set-up to deal with that amount of armour but, you know, fate was on our side and we actually managed a fairly healthy victory.

 

In the end the Loyalists, the side we were playing for, amassed the highest amount of victory points and were awarded the title "The Righteous Heirs" although we couldn't technically win. I also picked up a couple of awards, "The High Remembrancer" for best army list and "The Magos Reductor" for best army :D

 

So, with all the heresy stuff out of the way for a bit, sort of, I've cast my eyes onto the new Codex Space Marines, as many of you will know I'm very much a Space Marine nut so it was inevitable that I would start a new marine army when the codex hit.

 

For this army I'm taking a bit of a step back and bringing back my clean and accurate style, if I'm honest the grimey and dirty style has never really been my thing. So I really wanted to go back to what I like best.

The army, as you can tell from the pictures is again a blue and white army, this time in a quartered scheme and the chapter I'm going for is Sons of Guilliman. The first unit I've done is a Sternguard unit, mainly to have a crack at Golden demon with the aim of at least getting through the first cut which I'm pleased to say I did. I really wanted one of the new medals they did for this year :D

 

That's all for now, there will be plenty more to come over the next few months, more heresy stuff in the shape of Sons of Horus, Angron, some Charcaradons and of course my Sons of Gulliman.

 

 

 

 



Still going

Well, as you can see I'm still going, the army's getting a lot bigger. Although I'm taking a break for a week or so as I'm about to move house and am doing an event for charity at the weekend, Trailwalker, I'd really appreciate it if you could take the time to have a look at the page and the actual event page link at the left hand side of my fundraising page.

Random point!! Just seen the trailer for Kickass 2, looks awesome :D

So yeah, I've finished the 2nd Contemptor and the Land Raider for the Rampagers, really enjoyed doing these and very happy with how they came together. (might be adding a bit more blue to the Land Raider at some point)

I've also finished the 2nd Tactical Squad, they were a bit of a slog initially but as I started getting through them I really got motivated the get them done.

Really pleased with the Sergeant for these guys, I think I got the pose right for the head, seems to fit quite well with the WE theme.

He also carries Melta Bombs, Fortunately Forge World do smaller versions in their MkIV CCW kit it's a cracking kit, I've pretty much used all of it in some form or another, either chopping the head off of a mace to add a chainaxe head or just the arms for more options and poses on the marines. There are also some excellent power fists and lightning claws that I'm sure I'll use in future armies.

I also won a competition this week over at the The Goldfish of Justice, so am really chuffed about that. I'll always try and support these guys as commission painting is something I do a fair bit of and is more than likely something I'll be picking up more of when I leave my current job, I understand how much of a slog it can be at times.

 

 

Anyway, I think that's enough of a ramble for this week, expect the next update to feature a large tank, maybe some destroyers and potentially a Praetor, not got a lot left to do for this army :D

Tactical Marine Walk Through/Talk Through.

As promised this post will be a walk through/talk through of the process I’m currently using to paint the World Eaters. So, here you go.

As you can see from this picture the mini has been built, based and undercoated. The main body has been undercoated white while the shoulder pads and back pack have been undercoated black. You’ll notice that the shoulder pads have been stuck to cocktail sticks and the back pack has had a hole drilled and paper clip glued in place.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first thing I then do is base coat the whole mini with Ulthuan Grey and black out the areas that aren’t going to be white. Don’t work about any mess at this point as it’ll be neatened up at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The first colour I then put on is the blue. I use Macragge Blue for this, the paint is watered down to roughly about 1 part water to 2 parts paint (1-2), this will need a couple of coats but gives a smoother finish. Once that’s dry I apply a 1-2 mix of Abbadon Black- Macragge Blue, watered down 1-1 this time, into the reccess’. The next thing I do is give a single highlight of Fenrisian Grey watered down 1-1.

 

 

 

 

 

Next up are the metals, the silver is basecoated with Leadbelcher. The gold has a Warplock Bronze base followed by Gehenna’s Gold, this helps to give a nice solid gold colour. All colours are watered down around 1-2. Once both are dry the silver is given a wash of Nuln Oil and the gold a wash of Agrax Earthshade. I give a fairly heavy application of both washes as it helps to add definition, just be careful not to put too much on so that it pools and sits too heavy on top of the colours.

 

 

 

 

Whilst the washes are drying I get the bases done, I use a small drybrush to do this, first the base is overbrushed with Mournfang Brown, by over brushing I mean that the paint is still wet and just brushed over the base so it won’t sit in the dips etc. Once the first colour is dry I then do the same with Ushabti Bone and paint the rim with Rhinox Hide.

Once the washes are dry I then highlight the gold with Auric Armour Gold followed by Runefang Steel, I also highlight the silver with this at the same time, again all paints are roughly 2-1 mix with water.

The eyes and any pouches are then done. The eyes are done in 3 stages first Khorne Red, followed by Evil Sunz Scarlet and then Fire Dragon Bright. The pouches are basecoated Rhinox Hide and given 2 successive highlights adding a little White Scar to each one in turn. After this the black is done, it’s neatened up with Abbadon black and given a single highlight of Mecharius Standard Grey. You'll also notice that I've added a layer of gloss varnish on the shoulder pads, this will help the transfers get a smoother fit later on.

 

That’s the mini pretty much ready for the white to be painted. The first thing I do is apply a 1-1 mix of Agrax Earthshade into all the reccess’ and then neaten up any mistakes with Ulthuan Grey, I then apply a single highlight of White Scar on all the edges and add a dot into the corners of the eyes. With  that the mini is pretty much done. All that’s left to be done at this stage are the decals and weathering.

 

 

 

 

Prior to the finishing touches I firstly remove the shoulder pads from the cocktail sticks and the back pack from the paper clip and then fully build the mini. The transfers are then trimmed from the sheets and sliced in the areas that’ll help them fit better, this, along with the use of Microset, helps them to adhere models very smoothly.

 

I then leave the Microset to dry, it’s useful to check it every now and then as you can help to smooth them around shoulder pads etc. as it dries. As you can see from the pictures I use a flat brush to do this with, that’s the only job that particular brush has.

 

Next up is the weathering, using Rhinox Hide straight from the pot, I get a bit of sponge, a scrap piece from a miniature case will probably be the easiest to find, and just dab it into the paint, always make sure to dab it on the pallet before touching the model with it as you don’t want to put to much on and ruin things when you’re almost done.

Once I’ve done the chipping I then add a bit of blood splatter, for this I add some Tamiya Clear Red to Rhinox Hide until I’m happy with the look of it and then just liberally apply it to the mini where I think it should be. The thing I’ve found with the Tamiya red is that it starts to dry up pretty quickly and you almost get a congealing effect that you can move around with your brush, just don’t use a brush that you intend trying to get back to a point afterwards, I generally just use my mixing brush for this.

 

The final bit of weathering to be done is a bit of dust effect around the bottom of the legs, for this I use  Forge World Weathering Powders, Dark Earth. All I do is put some into a small pot add a bit of water until it’s nice and runny and then just paint it on the bottom of the legs, again using an older or more robust brush, I use a small drybrush. Once this is dry you can still move it around on the model to try and get a more natural look, a quick lick of the brush will help this even more.

 

All that’s left to do is add a dot of grass to the base, really simple, a small dot of green paint where you want the grass to go, drag the base though a tub of flock, allow to dry and blow any excess off. Then give a spray of Varnish/Seal, I use Testors Dullcote, it’s tried and tested, I’ve been using it for the best part of ten years. And then that’s the model all done.

 

In this picture you'll notice a couple of things, firstly there are 2 marines, throughout the painting of this force I've always done the basic marines in pairs. Due to the small areas of colour I think this just makes sense and it definitely helps with getting things done in a more timely manner, in reality this probably adds 45 minutes on to what is generally a 2-3 hour job so you end up saving yourself a couple of hours painting time per pair overall. Secondly, this pair haven't been varnished yet, I do this in bulk so once I've got 10 or so done, this saves you paint as it means you're not wasting as much through over spray.

You’ll notice throughout the post that I’ve kept a lot of the colours very basic in their colour transition, this is pretty much all due to the fact that they are getting weathered a fair amount. It’s all about understanding what the final product is going to look like, I’ve seen painters in the past spending a long time painting details, going through a lot of highlight stages only to then weather their model and pretty much spoil all the effort they’ve put in. So really I guess what I’m saying is think about the end product prior to starting anything you do, you’ll save loads of time.

 

Hopefully you’ve found this helpful, please leave feedback as I’d like to do more of this type of thing as I go through different armies etc.

 

In other news, I’ve got my Games Day Ticket for this year, currently contemplating Golden Daemon just not sure what to do at all. Looking at the FW Terminator Praetor or the new GW Lord Executioner, I’ve always fared a bit better at squad though. So, just not sure at all…… Ultramarines assault command squad?

Dakka Dakka Dakka

Hi all, well as some of you may realise I tend to build the next unit prior to painting the one I have currently built. After finishing the Dreadnought I decided to build the Autocannon Heavy Support squad so it'd be ready to paint once the tactical squad was finished.

I was hoping to get a game of Betrayal at my local club this week and after building them realised that they wouldn't be the most practical squad to take part built to game with so decided to see if I could get them done prior to going.

As you can see from the picture above I managed to get them done. Now the thing is I never had to push myself to get through them, I was pleasantly surprised at just how quickly they came together.

  I started to wonder why this was and came to the realisation it's all about the process. With the World Eaters I'm doing something I've done a lot in the past. As I've alluded to above, I don't completely build them prior to painting.

For the most part they're being built with the shoulder pads, back pack and sometimes the weapons left off, this allows me to spray the main parts in white and the other parts in black. The pads and back packs are attached to cocktails stick and paper clips respectively.

All this does is allows me to speed up the process slightly as I always, when painting white, re undercoat areas that aren't going to be white with black prior to applying base coats etc.

So with that in mind my next blog post will be something I've never done before, a walk through/talk through of a World Eater from start to finish. Hopefully you'll all find something in there of use, whether it's the process I've explained above or the weathering, applying transfers or adding the blood at the end. Until then, I've added a splash of blood to the Centurion.

Rampaging all over the place

Well it’s been a couple of weeks and due to real life (rugby, grand prix, couple of heavy nights out) I’ve not really done as much as I would have liked. I’ve managed to build a few extra bits and also placed yet another Forge World order for the last of the bits I need, a Spartan and a Typhon :D

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On the painting front I’ve done the Rampager Squad, I can honestly say that they were a pleasure to paint, bags and bags of character throughout. There was stuff I wasn’t noticing until actually putting paint on them, like the guy with the swollen eye, I really enjoyed putting paint on these guys, I think they’ll stand out pretty well within the whole force.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also got the first of the 2 characters done. I wanted a pretty stoic looking face so had a look through some Plogs on Warseer to see if I could find one that would suit and low and behold it was a friend of mine, Rev, who’s log sprung up the one I thought would be most suitable. The good old terminator sergeant head, just the right look I was after. You’ll notice that the Centurion hasn’t got any blood smeared on him at the moment, not really sure if I want to add some, I’d appreciate some feedback and thoughts on this. Does he need it and why etc.

 

And as I mentioned above I’ve also kept on building stuff, the first of the 2 Contemptor Dreadnoughts (currently on the painting table) and the 2^nd huge Tactical squad. All that leaves to build now is the Destroyer Squad, the Heavy Weapons Squad, a Praetor, the 2^nd Contemptor, a Land Raider Phobos, a Spartan and last but by no means least the Typhon. So 19 marines and dreadnought and 3 tanks, it looks a lot but hopefully it won’t take long. On the back of this stuff I also have the remainder of Craigs World Eaters to do as well! Best get building and painting!!

 

June Judgement Part 2

Sorry, not really got many pics for this post.

So game 2 was against Chef with his 5 (yes I did say 5) Techmarine list, the basics of the list were as follows;

Master of the Forge x2, 1 has a Conversion Beamer, both have servitors, 1 unit with Plasma Cannons, 1 with Multimeltas.

1 Ironclad Dreadnought in Drop Pod

2x Dreadnoughts with dual Autocannons
2x 5 Regular Scouts
1x 5 Sniper Scouts
1x Storm Talon
2x Land Speeder Storms
3x Thunderfire Cannons

Game was The Emperors Will with Hammer and Anvil deployment. In hindsight I gave Chef the wrong deployment side(I had the choice), I really should pay more attention to peoples lists at first look. Through the report the turns might not be quite right but it there or there about.

So my turn one I dropped in and pretty much did nothing L, well that wasn’t a good start although in return I probably lost 8 or nine marines and crucially didn’t give away First Blood, so turn 2 comes and just my Wolf Guard Arrive, that’s not so bad as at least it means I get a chance to have a pop at his Ironclads rear armour, manage to get 2 hull points off of it. Along with that I manage to clear the Sniper Scouts off of an objective, the Lord got rid of a Dreadnought but as a result was down to one wound (ouch!), and the other squads that came down in the first wave killed all of his Warlords servitors and were now locked in combat with the Warlord.

His Turn 2 saw none of his reserves arrive, the Ironclad and Thunderfire Cannons killed enough Grey Hunters to force a break check which unfortunately meant the left the board (much to my disgust), I think this was the turn I killed his warlord as well, might have been the following combat phase, memory’s getting a bit hazy. It also saw 2 of my Wolf Guard die.

 
My Turn 3 both of my other pods arrived, both towards his back line, one actually scattered 9 inches to where I would have preferred it which meant everything could get on to the rear armour of his 2^nd Dreadnought, he’d also brought one of his Techmarines down to try and shoot out my Lord the previous turn, the result of this turn saw the last Wolf Guard chuck a speculative Krak grenade at the rear of the Ironclad to see it go boom :D, the squad that just arrived did for the other Dreadnought and the lord did for the Techmarine that had tried to take him out the previous turn.

All of Chefs reserves arrived this turn, both Speeders with their Scouts came on his short board edge and the Storm Talon zoomed on the board, he managed to kill the last of the 3 Wolf guard, 6 of the ten strong unit that had taken out the Dreadnought the previous turn and a couple of the marines from the other squad that had just arrived but that was pretty much it.

Turn four saw me take out both LS Storms and all bar 3 of the scouts that fell out of them, I managed to get into combat with one of the Thunderfire Techmarines which stopped that shooting but failed the charge for the other. He managed to kill another couple of marines with the Storm Talon and I think one more from the heavily Depleted Squad at the other side of the board.

And that was pretty much it, the game ended at this point due to time, I think that was more down to us taking a bit of time to get started rather than playing slowly. Purely down to the couple of marines that Chef managed to kill I never had any objectives, I did however have all 3 secondary’s  to nothing for him so a 3-0 win to me, I also managed to get one of my secret missions.

 
Game 3 and final game of the event I was up against Martyn Powelland his Tyranids, his list was something like this (you’ll need to forgive me, I don’t know where things fit into the nids slots)game, Vanguard Strike, Purge the Alien;
 

Swarmlord

2 Units of Genestealers with Broodlords
2 Units of Termagaunts
2x Tervigons
2x Trygons
1x 3 Hive Guard
Doom of Malantye (sp) in a Mysetic Spore

His set up;

I for the life of me can’t remember the size of the units, this is how the game went, me first, 4 pods consisted of 2 Rune Priest+ Wolf Guard+Grey Hunters, 1 Lord +Wolf Guard with Combi Flamer+Grey Hunters, 1 unit of the 10 Grey Hunters unit. On the initial drop I killed one Tervigon, a couple of Guants and all the Genestealers bar the Broodlords who both took 1 wound. He managed to kill 5 of the Lords unit and Spawn 16 Guants (there was a double in there too), there was also 5 of one of the Rune Priests squad killed in combat which caused that unit to run. Taking a small step back in this turn, due to the Lords unit taking so many casualties it forced a break test, this was a bit of a crucial stage of the game. They failed the test which meant that the Trygon, Swarmlord and Broodlord that were shaping up to charge never got in, if they had it would have put a completely different spin on the game.

Turn 2 saw a Grey Hunter pack and the Wolf Guard arrive, I pretty much surrounded the Swarmlord and proceded to shoot him to death, I also managed to get both Broodlords this turn and the 2^nd Tervigon. His turn 2 saw one Trygon kill a Rune Priest and the remnants of his squad and for the life of me I can’t remember what the other Trygon did this turn, potentially he killed the 3 Wolf Guard that had just come in I also lost another couple of marine to the Hive Guard.

 

 

Turn 3 saw the last squad come in from reserve, they helped to get rid of the Hive Guard along with the other larger squad that was left, the Lord along with Remnants managed to get the last Trygon which meant all he was left with was the large squad of Guants that the Tervigon had Spawned in the first turn. Fortunately the Doom arrived this turn for him and proceeded to do what the Doom does best, pics are of my turn 3 start and finish.

 

Over the next couple of turns the Doom done what it does best, along with the pod it managed to kill a whole squad of Grey Hunters and the rest of the lords squad, the Drop Pods killed the Mysetic Spore and the Lord finished off the Doom after he had helped kill the last of the Guants. I think the game ended at the end of my turn 5 and resulted in a 17-7 victory to me. This was a list that really scared me, it’s the main reason I put the high strength stuff in and really why the Lord is there in the first place, so a good result and I feel vindicated in a few of my choices.

So the end result for the event was a 3^rd place for me, the best I’ve done in a while, so really chuffed, as I said in my previous post, the event ran really smoothly, I’ll definitely be attending in the future.

June Judgement

So on Saturday the 15th June I attended a local (ish) tournament at Salisbury Legion Wargames club, June Judgement. The event was 1 day 1750 points with 3/1/0 scoring system which also included secret missions that gave you 1 tournament point for each, VPs were used for tie break.

Got up nice and early on a Saturday morning for the drive over, it takes about 40 mins to get there from where I currently live so it's not too bad. I've been over to Salisbury a couple of times, I parked in the centre of town the first time I went over but have recently started using the park and ride as it's much less stressful than trying to drive around the one way system and certainly much cheaper than parking in town all day, It's free, all you have to pay is your fare into town which is £2.50 return, parking in town starts from around £7.50 all day.

The event itself was run at the Royal British Legion which is pretty much in the town centre so it's nice and easy to just pop out for lunch, as you can imagine the town has all the usual take aways etc. the local GW is also about 50m away just in case you need any supplies quickly.

So on to the tournament itself, as I've mentioned it was a one day event at 1750 points with 3 games and secret missions, as you all probably know I'm currently running the Drop Pod Wolves, here's the list I used;

HQ

Wolf Lord; Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Saga of the Bear, Wolf Tail Talisman, Runic Armour

Rune Priest, Chooser of the Slain, Force Stave

Rune Priest, Force Stave

 

Elites

Wolf Guard;   7 ,6x Combi Meltas, 1x Combi Flamer, 2x Power Swords, Drop Pod

Troops

Grey Hunters 1; 8, Meltagun, Wolf Standard, Drop Pod

Grey Hunters 2; 8, Meltagun, Wulfen Drop Pod

Grey Hunters 3; 8, Meltagun, Power Fist, Drop Pod

Grey Hunters 4; 8, Meltagun, Power Fist, Drop Pod

Grey Hunters 5; 10, Flamer/Meltagun, Wulfen, Drop Pod

Grey Hunters 6; 10, Flamer/Meltagun, Drop Pod

 

So game one I was facing John Stewart with his Grey Knights/Necron combination, his basic list was this;

 

Brother Captain, Psycannon

Brother Captain Psycannon

2x Strike Squads, 2 Psycannons
3x Dreadknights, 2 with Incinerator/Psycannon, 1 only Incinerator

Necron Destroyer Lord, mind shackle scarabs
2x 5 Warriors in Doomscythes

 

The mission for this one was the Scouring and set up (not that I care about that) was Dawn of War, he managed to win the roll for set up and first turn. This Really had me worried due to Warp Quake, I did contemplate just putting the lads out on the table but just decided to crack on and just go for it. So the game started and as always if I'm not going first I'll more than likely just roll to see if I can sieze the initiative, my first bit of luck in this game, a six! Phew! Here's the resulting deployment of my first wave;

My first turn saw me take one of his strike squads down to 2 men which also saw his Warlord go down aswell. His retaliation saw him killing a fair few marines and assaulting a unit with his Necron Lord and one of the Dreadknights, the lord won the combat and my unit retreated away from him, I managed to take a few wounds off of the dreadknight and stuck in that combat.

My turn 2 saw all three of my reserves come down, which resulted in the majority of his other stike squad dissapearing in a hail of bolter rounds my lord and the remnants of his unit charged the Necron lord along with a Rune Priest who had split from his unit after they retreated, the lord put a couple of wounds on him which left him at initiative one for the next phase in combat. The squad in combat with the Dreadknight actually managed to take him down as well which meant at the end of my turn 2 all he had left on the board was 2 dreadknights, and a couple of strike marines who were locked in combat, a few Strike marines with a Brother Captain and a necron lord who was also locked in combat.

His turn 2 saw both of his reserves come on and kill a couple of marines, the small strike squad managed to kill a three man unit of Wolf Guard, one Dreadknight manage to kill another couple of marines but was well out of charge range, the other Dreadknight again killed a marine or 2 but failed to get enough on his charge roll, My Lord then put the Necron Lord out of his misery.

My turn 3 saw me finish off the remainder of the strike squad along with his other Brother Captain, the Wolf Lord charged and took a couple of wounds off of one of the Dreadknights whilst a squad along with Rune Priest charged the other and stuck, one strike marine held against 2 Grey Hunters.

His 3 saw both the Doomscythes zoom and drop their passengers onto objectives before turbo-ing off of the board, the Wolf Lord killed the Dreadknight he was in combat with and the squad that was in combat with the other stuck this turn as well, the strike marine stuck yet again with the 2 grey Hunters.

In my turn 4 the free Grey Hunter squads advanced towards the 5 necrons on an objective and killed a couple whilst the Wolf Lord joined the combat with the other Dreadknight and took a couple of wounds off of him (I think he killed him as we rushed the last few turns as the result was pretty clear at this point) the lone strike marine died and his doomscythes re-appeared and failed to do anything, I managed to clear the Necron Warriors off of the objective they were standing on.

So the end result seen me winning 10-3, so quite please with that, it was a great fun game to play. One point to note is that the Wolf Lords personal tally for this game was 1 Necron Lord and 2 Dreadknights at a cost of no wounds to himself!

I'll cover the next 2 games along with the final result in my next post.

Until then, here's some World Eaters;