This weekend I tried out what I thought would be my list for the upcoming Overlords escalation league. The core of the list was pretty solid I thought but learned much during my games and have decided on a number of changes.
The old list is below, with comments in red:
4 Company Command Squad @ 150 pts (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Lasgun x1; Plasma gun x3; Master of Ordnance)
1 Company Commander (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Refractor Field; Plasma Pistol; Power Fist; Warlord; Senior Officer)
The wrong loadout for my commander in this type of list... also way too expensive in games where he'll be hunted down like a dog for that warlord victory point!
1 Master of Ordnance (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon; Laspistol; Artillery Bombardment)
This guy was truly useless at this points level. There just aren't enough enemy units on the board. He needs to be dropping those blasts on large concentrations of enemy units or huge blobs of infantry - he killed nothing and has now been sent away to a penal legion somewhere.
9 Veteran Squad @ 135 pts (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Lasgun x6; Plasma gun x3)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Plasma Pistol; Power Sword)
These guys should be fairly effective but need a way of not dying immediately... so, a transport or carapace armour is probably required.
1 Infantry Platoon @ 212 pts
4 Platoon Command Squad (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Lasgun x1; Krak Grenades; Sniper Rifle x3)
1 Platoon Commander (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon; Krak Grenades; Boltgun; Junior Officer)
7 Infantry Squad (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Flak Armour; Lasgun x6; Krak Grenades; Grenade Launcher x1; Combined Squad)
1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Krak Grenades)
1 Sergeant (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Krak Grenades)
7 Infantry Squad (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Flak Armour; Lasgun x6; Krak Grenades; Grenade Launcher x1; Combined Squad)
1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1; Krak Grenades)
1 Sergeant (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Krak Grenades)
There won't be any major changes here, these guys did their jobs admirably - stand on objectives and shoot stuff until you get assaulted and die. Not sure they need krak grenades though...
Total Roster Cost: 497
What I'll be going with is below with comments in yellow:
1 Primaris Psyker @ 70 pts (Infantry; Psyker (1); Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Refractor Field; Laspistol; Force Axe; Independent Character; It's For Your Own Good; Warlord; Lightning Arc; Nightshroud)
The CCS was too expensive for what it brought to the table - too many upgrades. I could take a naked/cheap CCS but I fear they would have even less impact then. So, scrap the CCS completely (I'll bring it back later at a higher points level where there are more troops to issue orders to). I went for the Psyker rather than the Commissar Lord because I want to learn how to use psykers in preparation for growing and playing my Tyranids in the near future. He will join the veterans in their Chimera and move into a useful position from which to cast his powers.
9 Veteran Squad @ 205 pts (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x9; Lasgun x6; Plasma gun x3)
1 Veteran Sergeant (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Krak Grenades; Plasma Pistol; Power Sword)
1 Chimera (IA) ((IA1se, pg. 64); Vehicle (Tank, Transport); 12 model capacity; Heavy Bolter; Searchlight; Smoke Launchers; Turret Autocannon; Pintle Heavy Stubber; Amphibious; Mobile Command Vehicle)
The veterans are staying the same - the sarge probably doesn't need a power weapon but between him and the psykers force axe they might actually be able to kill something valuable in an assault. The big change is obviously the Chimera. I'm thinking that the squad will either deploy inside and move on an objective/relic or deploy in heavy cover somewhere, in which case the chimera can try to hunt down other light vehicles.
1 Infantry Platoon @ 185 pts
4 Platoon Command Squad (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Close Combat Weapon x4; Lasgun x1; Sniper Rifle x3)
1 Platoon Commander (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon; Junior Officer)
7 Infantry Squad (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Flak Armour; Lasgun x6; Grenade Launcher x1; Combined Squad)
1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1)
1 Sergeant (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
7 Infantry Squad (Infantry; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x7; Flak Armour; Lasgun x6; Grenade Launcher x1; Combined Squad)
1 Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher; Assault Grenades; Close Combat Weapon x1; Flak Armour; Lasgun x1)
1 Sergeant (Character; Assault Grenades; Flak Armour; Laspistol; Close Combat Weapon)
Nothing much has changed here - I just want bodies to hold an objective and a few heavy weapons to take down vehicles, so an infantry platoon seems to be the right tool for the job. I'm thinking that they will mostly deploy as a combined squad with the command squad nearby, setting themselves up as major fire-base.
1 Imperial Defence Emplacement @ 40 pts (Battlefield Debris (Defence Lines))
This is where things get interesting... I have tons of the Wall of Martyrs kits and I want to start using them (now that I actually can). I thought about adding an Aegis and/or a Commissar to the list to keep the infantry platoon in the fight for longer... this seems to serve both purposes for much less cost! As the league progresses I think this is going to be the theme of my army - regular infantry holding the line with various support elements coming in to assist them in throwing back the enemy!
Total Roster Cost: 500
Tuesday, 31 December 2013
Games Played - 29/12/13
This past weekend I finally managed to get myself out to the Overlords for some 40k. I hadn't played in several months (since moving to London, really) so I was feeling pretty rusty!
Fortunately I more or less appear to remember how to play the game and both of my opponents were very friendly and helpful on the rules front.
I'm going to participate in an escalation league at the Overlords over the next several months - it's starts with 500pts in January so, this weekend I brought a fairly simple infantry heavy 500pt Imperial Guard list.
I learned a lot from the two games and particularly from chatting to the guys post-game - it turns out both either are or have been guard players so they had plenty of good advice.
Both games were 500 points and played on 4x4 tables.
Game 1: Imperial Fists
Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War
Enemy Force:
Two tactical squads (an 8 and a 10 man) in rhinos with a librarian attached to the smaller squad. Plus one land speeder typhoon.
Game Summary:
The table was split down the middle by a large river which we decided would be dangerous terrain. There was a single bridge at the centre on which the relic was placed. I had some hilltop ruins off to the left of my deployment zone so I placed the PCS and one infantry squad there, giving them excellent lines of sight. My other infantry squad and the veterans deployed near the centre, around and behind a low hill, opposite the bridge. The CCS with the master of ordnance deployed out of sight, behind a small impassable building.
The Space Marines deployed in their rhinos more or less directly opposite the bridge. The land speeder was held in reserve.
My "plan" was to stop the rhinos short of the relic and grab it with my veterans, who would then head back into cover in my deployment zone. Of course, I immediately realised that was not going to be possible short of some amazingly lucky shooting on turn one. I totally overestimated the effectiveness of the Master of Ordnance as he proceeded to hit exactly zero things throughout both games. Both rhinos made it to the middle of the board and the large marine squad disembarked, spelling doom for my veterans. I did manage to kill both rhinos, but I was never really able to wear down the tactical squads sufficiently and they mopped up my troops fairly efficiently! They even assaulted the ruins I was hiding in and rooted out my snipers - Dorn would have been proud.
Thoughts:
There was one highly cinematic and rather comical moment in this game - the librarian assaulted my commander and they managed to double-K.O. each-other. Slaying the warlord was little help to me however, as my poor guardsmen were slaughtered to a man...
Even so, it was a fun game, especially since I haven't played at all in so long! I must say it was all very thematically appropriate; the Imperial Fists marched through my lines, shrugging off las-fire and stoically making the most of their bolter drill! I think the big lesson learned here was not to stand out in the open... also the master of ordnance is not as fabulous as that S9 AP3 large blast makes him sound.
Game 2: Inquisition
Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil
Enemy Force:
Coteaz. One squad of stabby henchmen in a chimera plus one squad of shooty henchmen also in a chimera.
Summary:
We played this one on a very cool Orky scrap-town board. There were plenty of multi-level 'ruins' and a few buildings blocking line of sight across the middle of the board. Objectives were place fairly evenly around the battlefield, though we wouldn't learn the value of each objective until it was controlled.
I made a bit of a rookie error in deployment and put my officers well out of order range of the infantry squads... I might need to write up a little checklist so that I actually remember orders in future, I forgot about them completely several times!
I managed to explode Coteaz's chimera early in the game, which killed a couple of the arco-flagellants and left him and the remainder of his very stabby band of henchmen walking across the board. It was also revealed that I had access to a 4 point objective and a 2 point objective, whilst my opponent could only (easily) hold a 3 pointer.
Because of this, the game really boiled down to Coteaz and his retinue making a play for the 4 point objective that I controlled. On the other side of the board, one of my infantry squads and the veterans went up against a chimera - this didn't go very well for the veterans, who were mown down crossing open ground in an attempt to take another objective.
I had a lot of shots going into Coteaz's squad and that slowly took it's toll. I couldn't kill them all though and they made it it into assault with my CCS which was (unsurprisingly...) wiped out in short order. In an act of supreme silliness, my commander even managed to kill himself while overwatching with his plasma pistol... those things get hot, eh?
However, in the very final minutes of the game, a string of SIX 1's put an end to the remaining acolytes and saw my platoon command squad heroically beat Coteaz to death with their sniper rifles.
Another very fun game with some nail-biting moments towards the end - if Coteaz or his acolytes had passed just a one or two more of their saves they would have contested the 4-point objective and that would have been that!
Thoughts:
For me, the lessons here were not too dissimilar to the first game - the Master of Ordnance did zero and my dudes die really fast in the open! Also, orders are a thing and I should try to remember them...
In general, I also suffered from purchasing too many, ultimately unnecessary, upgrades. There was no need (despite killing the librarian in the first game) for the commander to have a power fist - or a plasma pistol for that matter. It's a totally different type of CCS that has such things. Maybe if they had a medic, melta guns and carapace armour - then I could use them more aggressively.
So, I'll be going for something a little different for the actual league list which I shall post imminently.
Fortunately I more or less appear to remember how to play the game and both of my opponents were very friendly and helpful on the rules front.
I'm going to participate in an escalation league at the Overlords over the next several months - it's starts with 500pts in January so, this weekend I brought a fairly simple infantry heavy 500pt Imperial Guard list.
I learned a lot from the two games and particularly from chatting to the guys post-game - it turns out both either are or have been guard players so they had plenty of good advice.
Both games were 500 points and played on 4x4 tables.
Game 1: Imperial Fists
Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War
Enemy Force:
Two tactical squads (an 8 and a 10 man) in rhinos with a librarian attached to the smaller squad. Plus one land speeder typhoon.
Game Summary:
The table was split down the middle by a large river which we decided would be dangerous terrain. There was a single bridge at the centre on which the relic was placed. I had some hilltop ruins off to the left of my deployment zone so I placed the PCS and one infantry squad there, giving them excellent lines of sight. My other infantry squad and the veterans deployed near the centre, around and behind a low hill, opposite the bridge. The CCS with the master of ordnance deployed out of sight, behind a small impassable building.
The Space Marines deployed in their rhinos more or less directly opposite the bridge. The land speeder was held in reserve.
My "plan" was to stop the rhinos short of the relic and grab it with my veterans, who would then head back into cover in my deployment zone. Of course, I immediately realised that was not going to be possible short of some amazingly lucky shooting on turn one. I totally overestimated the effectiveness of the Master of Ordnance as he proceeded to hit exactly zero things throughout both games. Both rhinos made it to the middle of the board and the large marine squad disembarked, spelling doom for my veterans. I did manage to kill both rhinos, but I was never really able to wear down the tactical squads sufficiently and they mopped up my troops fairly efficiently! They even assaulted the ruins I was hiding in and rooted out my snipers - Dorn would have been proud.
Thoughts:
There was one highly cinematic and rather comical moment in this game - the librarian assaulted my commander and they managed to double-K.O. each-other. Slaying the warlord was little help to me however, as my poor guardsmen were slaughtered to a man...
Even so, it was a fun game, especially since I haven't played at all in so long! I must say it was all very thematically appropriate; the Imperial Fists marched through my lines, shrugging off las-fire and stoically making the most of their bolter drill! I think the big lesson learned here was not to stand out in the open... also the master of ordnance is not as fabulous as that S9 AP3 large blast makes him sound.
Game 2: Inquisition
Mission: The Scouring
Deployment: Hammer & Anvil
Enemy Force:
Coteaz. One squad of stabby henchmen in a chimera plus one squad of shooty henchmen also in a chimera.
Summary:
We played this one on a very cool Orky scrap-town board. There were plenty of multi-level 'ruins' and a few buildings blocking line of sight across the middle of the board. Objectives were place fairly evenly around the battlefield, though we wouldn't learn the value of each objective until it was controlled.
I made a bit of a rookie error in deployment and put my officers well out of order range of the infantry squads... I might need to write up a little checklist so that I actually remember orders in future, I forgot about them completely several times!
I managed to explode Coteaz's chimera early in the game, which killed a couple of the arco-flagellants and left him and the remainder of his very stabby band of henchmen walking across the board. It was also revealed that I had access to a 4 point objective and a 2 point objective, whilst my opponent could only (easily) hold a 3 pointer.
Because of this, the game really boiled down to Coteaz and his retinue making a play for the 4 point objective that I controlled. On the other side of the board, one of my infantry squads and the veterans went up against a chimera - this didn't go very well for the veterans, who were mown down crossing open ground in an attempt to take another objective.
I had a lot of shots going into Coteaz's squad and that slowly took it's toll. I couldn't kill them all though and they made it it into assault with my CCS which was (unsurprisingly...) wiped out in short order. In an act of supreme silliness, my commander even managed to kill himself while overwatching with his plasma pistol... those things get hot, eh?
However, in the very final minutes of the game, a string of SIX 1's put an end to the remaining acolytes and saw my platoon command squad heroically beat Coteaz to death with their sniper rifles.
Another very fun game with some nail-biting moments towards the end - if Coteaz or his acolytes had passed just a one or two more of their saves they would have contested the 4-point objective and that would have been that!
Thoughts:
For me, the lessons here were not too dissimilar to the first game - the Master of Ordnance did zero and my dudes die really fast in the open! Also, orders are a thing and I should try to remember them...
In general, I also suffered from purchasing too many, ultimately unnecessary, upgrades. There was no need (despite killing the librarian in the first game) for the commander to have a power fist - or a plasma pistol for that matter. It's a totally different type of CCS that has such things. Maybe if they had a medic, melta guns and carapace armour - then I could use them more aggressively.
So, I'll be going for something a little different for the actual league list which I shall post imminently.
Wednesday, 18 December 2013
Nope! IC 2014 HPC!
Yet again my wondrous plans are cast down into ruin.
The rules for the Independent Characters 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge have been announced this month! So, in light of this and how much I've been looking forward to it, new plans are required.
The format this year is a bit different than last; there are two parts, the first goal will be to complete a 1000 point Zone Mortalis army and the second will be to expand that army into a 2000 points standard 40k army.
I've decided on a simple target for the Zone Mortalis portion: paint ALL the infantry!
My list will be as follows:
Stage 1: 1000pts Zone Mortalis
Inquisitor Hera, Ordo Xenos @ 78 pts (Digital Weapons; Power Armour; Force Sword; Plasma Pistol; Psyker)
Company Command Squad @ 120 pts (Plasma gun x3)
. . Captain Ulysses, Commander B Company (Plasma Pistol; Power Fist;)
Primaris Psyker @ 70 pts (Force Stave)
Veteran Squad @ 135 pts (Plasma gun x3)
. . Veteran Sergeant (Plasma Pistol; Power Sword)
Veteran Squad @ 117 pts (Meltagun x3)
. . Veteran Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Power Fist)
Infantry Platoon @ 477 pts
. . Platoon Command Squad (Meltagun x3)
. . . . Lieutenant Apollo, 7th Platoon Lead (Boltgun)
. . Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1)
. . . . Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)
. . Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1)
. . . . Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)
. . Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)
. . Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)
. . Heavy Weapons Squad (Heavy Bolter x3)
. . Special Weapons Squad (Sniper Rifle x3)
Total Cost: 997
It's not a super-effective list but it includes almost all of my unpainted infantry models plus a few other cool things that I want to build but don't own yet.
February:
Psyker
Vet Squad 1
March:
Inquisitor
Vet Squad 2
Sniper Squad
April:
Platoon Command Squad
Infantry Squad 1
May:
Infantry Squad 2
Company Command Squad
June:
Heavy Bolter Squad
Autocannon Squad 1
Autocannon Squad 2
Now I have 8... why do I have 8? Some day I will use them all in an Apocalypse game, some glorious day!
The rules for the Independent Characters 2014 Hobby Progress Challenge have been announced this month! So, in light of this and how much I've been looking forward to it, new plans are required.
The format this year is a bit different than last; there are two parts, the first goal will be to complete a 1000 point Zone Mortalis army and the second will be to expand that army into a 2000 points standard 40k army.
I've decided on a simple target for the Zone Mortalis portion: paint ALL the infantry!
My list will be as follows:
Stage 1: 1000pts Zone Mortalis
Inquisitor Hera, Ordo Xenos @ 78 pts (Digital Weapons; Power Armour; Force Sword; Plasma Pistol; Psyker)
Company Command Squad @ 120 pts (Plasma gun x3)
. . Captain Ulysses, Commander B Company (Plasma Pistol; Power Fist;)
Primaris Psyker @ 70 pts (Force Stave)
Veteran Squad @ 135 pts (Plasma gun x3)
. . Veteran Sergeant (Plasma Pistol; Power Sword)
Veteran Squad @ 117 pts (Meltagun x3)
. . Veteran Sergeant (Bolt Pistol; Power Fist)
Infantry Platoon @ 477 pts
. . Platoon Command Squad (Meltagun x3)
. . . . Lieutenant Apollo, 7th Platoon Lead (Boltgun)
. . Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1)
. . . . Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)
. . Infantry Squad (Grenade Launcher x1)
. . . . Heavy Weapons Team (Missile Launcher)
. . Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)
. . Heavy Weapons Squad (Autocannon x3)
. . Heavy Weapons Squad (Heavy Bolter x3)
. . Special Weapons Squad (Sniper Rifle x3)
Total Cost: 997
It's not a super-effective list but it includes almost all of my unpainted infantry models plus a few other cool things that I want to build but don't own yet.
The challenge starts in February so I will be mapping out the monthly commitments like so:
February:
Psyker
Vet Squad 1
March:
Inquisitor
Vet Squad 2
Sniper Squad
April:
Platoon Command Squad
Infantry Squad 1
May:
Infantry Squad 2
Company Command Squad
June:
Heavy Bolter Squad
Autocannon Squad 1
Autocannon Squad 2
There are some tall orders in there but I'm excited about the prospect of having a fully painted army so by the gods I'm going to make a serious effort to do this! It may also help keep my motivation levels up if I start actually playing some games... so I'll be doing that too; it's my new years resolution!
I realist it's the 18th of the month now and I haven't been totally idle - I decided that I needed to build something (it's my favourite part of the hobby after all) so I dug out a couple of tank chassis that had been lying idle (and on sprues). Behold, two more tanks!
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| Turrets painted separately... |
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| There are still two more planned... I have a problem. |
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| The Arcadian 300th Armored Company en route to the nearest Munitorum painting facility... |
For the remainder of this month, I'll be taking a break until about the 27th because we'll have guests over Christmas. After that, I'll be either painting that goddamn Wall of Martyrs (even if it kills me) or potentially building all the new shiny things... it could go either way...
Saturday, 7 December 2013
December/January Commitments
We're already a week into December so I think it's about time I made some hobby choices...
I'm still working on the Vendetta this weekend but hopefully it will be totally finished very soon - in any case, I consider it complete from a hobby progress perspective.
For December (and January if the IC Podcast Hobby Progress Challenge doesn't kick in before then), I'll be working on various secondary 'characters'. This motley crew are introduced below:
I will also be undertaking a sizable Christmas project for which I will be enlisting my girlfriend to assist. This is going to be the focus of my hobby efforts during the actual Christmas holidays. It's also actually the continuation of last years Christmas project which, true to form, I never completed...
Last year, as an awesome present, I received the large limited-run Wall of Martyrs box. I managed to get it all assembled (including some modifications...) and primed but painting didn't proceed beyond a few test pieces. Now, with the release of Stronghold Assault, it's the perfect time to get the set painted up and available for use with my army! I'll post later in the month with a before shot to show the changes that I made.
I'm still working on the Vendetta this weekend but hopefully it will be totally finished very soon - in any case, I consider it complete from a hobby progress perspective.
For December (and January if the IC Podcast Hobby Progress Challenge doesn't kick in before then), I'll be working on various secondary 'characters'. This motley crew are introduced below:
- Inquisitor
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| Now... where are my Servo-Skulls... |
- Primaris Psyker
 |
| The mandatory force weapon is... uhhh... concealed... |
- Krieg Commissar
 |
| Apparently he'll be shooting cowards with his sword. |
- Priest / Officer
 |
| Can I have some shoes? |
- Krieg Officer
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| Don't worry sir, a plasma pistol would only have made you die faster. |
I will also be undertaking a sizable Christmas project for which I will be enlisting my girlfriend to assist. This is going to be the focus of my hobby efforts during the actual Christmas holidays. It's also actually the continuation of last years Christmas project which, true to form, I never completed...
Last year, as an awesome present, I received the large limited-run Wall of Martyrs box. I managed to get it all assembled (including some modifications...) and primed but painting didn't proceed beyond a few test pieces. Now, with the release of Stronghold Assault, it's the perfect time to get the set painted up and available for use with my army! I'll post later in the month with a before shot to show the changes that I made.
Thursday, 28 November 2013
November Commitment "Complete"
Okay, that's a lie - it's not 100% finished... but it's damn close!
I was more or less finished but then decided to go all-out on the decals and use the Forge World 'wings'. This has turned out to be a pretty lengthy, painstaking process and, because I'm away now until December 1st, I will technically fail this months commitment...
However, I think it's looking pretty damn good so far and with all the time I've been spending playing XCOM this month... it is not a bad achievement.
Remaining to-do items are:
Probably a couple of evenings work in there plus some daylight for the spray varnishing!
For December, since unfortunately there will be no 'Nidsmas, I'm going to be a bit non-committal. What I end up spending time on will totally depend on what I pick up over the holidays. I was thinking that I would get some of the new Tyranids and commit to painting them up but alas... that will have to be a side-project for the new year.
Most likely I will start working through my various 'minor' character models over the course of December. If I can get a HQ choice or two done, I will be only one troops choice away from a fully painted legal army.
I was more or less finished but then decided to go all-out on the decals and use the Forge World 'wings'. This has turned out to be a pretty lengthy, painstaking process and, because I'm away now until December 1st, I will technically fail this months commitment...
However, I think it's looking pretty damn good so far and with all the time I've been spending playing XCOM this month... it is not a bad achievement.
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| PEWPEWPEWZOOOOOOOOOM |
- Apply wing decals to left side.
- Smooth out some dodgy decal work and seal them all with varnish.
- Finishing touches on the various lenses.
- Glue the crew in (plots and door gunners were painted separately).
- Add some scorching around the weapon barrels and exhausts.
- Matte varnish the whole thing.
Probably a couple of evenings work in there plus some daylight for the spray varnishing!
For December, since unfortunately there will be no 'Nidsmas, I'm going to be a bit non-committal. What I end up spending time on will totally depend on what I pick up over the holidays. I was thinking that I would get some of the new Tyranids and commit to painting them up but alas... that will have to be a side-project for the new year.
Most likely I will start working through my various 'minor' character models over the course of December. If I can get a HQ choice or two done, I will be only one troops choice away from a fully painted legal army.
Monday, 11 November 2013
November Update
Since it would appear that the Chaos gods have something other than painting in mind for me tonight (a broken dishwasher is surely the work of Tzeentch)... I thought I'd post a quick update.
I've gotten one LRBT turret pretty much finished, with some very basic weathering:
Not sure how well the effects show in those pictures but basically I added soot around the gun barrel, 'distressed' the larger decals a bit and sponged some metallics around the sharp edges and protrusions like handles etc. I've yet to do much with the powders - looks like I'm just going to paint everything to this stage and play around with more advanced techniques some day in the future. My goal here is to get a painted army, need to focus on that. It wasn't a total waste of time but really the main thing I've learned is that it's a whole other exercise learning to do this properly.
Also got the flyer base pretty much done, apart from grass:
The crew are also taking shape - I'll do a few more details on them but they're essentially done (the pilots will be almost invisible anyway so not spending too much time on them...):
I thought my pilots should have brightly coloured helmets, like in Top Gun... I might add some decals as I think that's actually the effect I had in my head :/
I really like the Pig Iron heads on the gunners. There was a time when the whole army would have been these heads on normal GW Cadian bodies... then I discovered Forge World and my fate was sealed... curse you Elysians!
I've gotten one LRBT turret pretty much finished, with some very basic weathering:
Not sure how well the effects show in those pictures but basically I added soot around the gun barrel, 'distressed' the larger decals a bit and sponged some metallics around the sharp edges and protrusions like handles etc. I've yet to do much with the powders - looks like I'm just going to paint everything to this stage and play around with more advanced techniques some day in the future. My goal here is to get a painted army, need to focus on that. It wasn't a total waste of time but really the main thing I've learned is that it's a whole other exercise learning to do this properly.
Also got the flyer base pretty much done, apart from grass:
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| Apparently I suck at painting concrete. |
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| And the colour white. |
I really like the Pig Iron heads on the gunners. There was a time when the whole army would have been these heads on normal GW Cadian bodies... then I discovered Forge World and my fate was sealed... curse you Elysians!
Saturday, 2 November 2013
November Commitment Decision
So, I've decided to go ahead with the Vendetta as my hobby commitment for this month. It's a much bigger task than a squad of dudes but it's (roughly) 50% done already so it should be achievable.
I'll also be progressing work on my weathering experiments, seen in their 'pre' state below:
While I work on these, I'm going to get the flight stand and the crew of the Vendetta done (in that order). The weapons are already finished painting and are magnetized, though I won't be painting any of the other weapon options right now. At some point I'll devote a months commitment to magnetizing and painting all of the extra weapon options that I want for all three of my flyers...
At the very least I plan to have the Vendetta painted, with decals and a coat of matte varnish applied by the end of the month - any weathering will possibly have to wait until I've gained a bit of confidence on the various techniques (I don't want to ruin such a large model...).
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| Next step: Err... paint things. |
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| The crew aren't glued so they'll be pulled and painted separately, along with the door gunners. |
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| Painting giant vehicles is hard... at least there's a nice interesting (and easy) base to paint. |
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| Extra armor and random bits - that's what building tanks is all about! |
At the very least I plan to have the Vendetta painted, with decals and a coat of matte varnish applied by the end of the month - any weathering will possibly have to wait until I've gained a bit of confidence on the various techniques (I don't want to ruin such a large model...).
Sunday, 27 October 2013
October Commitment Finished
Today I finally managed to get the last two things that I needed to finish off the squad: stable weather for spraying varnish and PVA glue for basing!
Final results below:
For November I'll be trying to get through either a vendetta gunship (roughly half painted already) or a few characters that I doubt will ever see much use on the field (Commissar, Priest etc.). I haven't decided which yet. I've been making slow progress on my 'teach myself weathering techniques' side-project this month and I'd like to get it finished before I tackle any other vehicles. So, finishing that little project will be first priority - once that's done I'll see what I have time left for in November!
Final results below:
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| 1st Squad, 7th Platoon taking aim! |
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| In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only pointing. |
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| All of my officers and veterans use Maxmini head swaps, so expect to see many more. |
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| Some standard troopers on the firing line. |
Sunday, 20 October 2013
October Update
Just a quick progress update - this months commitment has gone well, the squad is fully painted now and the next step is decals.
In the past I've always just used water when working with decals but having seen some examples online, I'm going to try to find a proper decal solvent/setting solution today. Even in my amateur hands it should allow me to eliminate the transparent film that water alone leaves visible. I'm not sure where to find this but I'm going to take a trip to Dark Sphere for some other bits and pieces anyway, so hopefully they have something. If not, there are bound to be a few scale model shops in London! Assuming I find something, I'll have these guys totally finished by next weekend which will be right on track.
I finally got around to building some Ikea display cabinets too, so everything is now deployed in my sitting room... here's how much stuff I have to paint:
Sigh. At least I'm on the right track now! One squad almost done... only another 60 dudes to go, give or take. I can't help myself really, I'm also building another two tanks - after that I still have another Tauros and a Salamander Scout to build... then I'm done... until that infantry platoon I bought via a Kickstarter arrives D:
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| So this is what a painted squad looks like... |
In the past I've always just used water when working with decals but having seen some examples online, I'm going to try to find a proper decal solvent/setting solution today. Even in my amateur hands it should allow me to eliminate the transparent film that water alone leaves visible. I'm not sure where to find this but I'm going to take a trip to Dark Sphere for some other bits and pieces anyway, so hopefully they have something. If not, there are bound to be a few scale model shops in London! Assuming I find something, I'll have these guys totally finished by next weekend which will be right on track.
I finally got around to building some Ikea display cabinets too, so everything is now deployed in my sitting room... here's how much stuff I have to paint:
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| Tyranids not pictured... |
Monday, 30 September 2013
Let's start again, for reals this time... October painting commitment!
Right, forget that last post because I finally did manage to get my gear moved over to my new home, which means...
Hobby commitment for October!
So, my overall plan is to participate in a year-long hobby progress challenge for 2014, which will be for 1850 points, I think.
In order to prepare for that, I'm going to paint a unit each month for the remainder of 2013. This is also good because it will allow me to finish off the units that are already in progress and start (more or less) with a totally unpainted 1850 for the challenge.
This month, my goal will be to complete an infantry squad:
And when I say complete, I mean totally finished... fully painted, decals done, bases decorated and varnished - ready to hit the table. This is almost unheard of for me, having even one squad totally finished would be a big win... all the more so if it gets me into the swing of things so I can complete the challenge! A fully painted army would be a big achievement, I don't think I've had one in about... oh, when did the Tau first come out? 2001 or something like that? Yeah... then. Given that I now have thousands of points of IG and almost as many Tyranids... I really need to paint some dudes.
You may notice that a couple of these guys are actually already painted - I did these several months ago as the test pieces for the whole army... I then proceeded to not paint the rest of the army, but that ends this month!
Overall the scheme is quite drab and a bit grim-dark but fairly realistic, I think. I have the Forge World Elysian decals ready to go, which should liven them up just a little. My original idea had them with gold visors but it didn't really work. I can thank Starship Troopers for the core colour scheme concept. I should maybe have gone with desert bases for contrast but I wanted to maintain a kind of ruined urban wasteland feel to the army - a few tufts of grass will be added and some models have green crystals sprouting from the base, which is pretty cool. As I proceed with painting the other seventy million dudes I'm sure I'll come up with new ideas and hopefully learn how to paint human skin...
I've already proceeded beyond the image above and will probably post the next update once the full 10 man squad is painted to the same stage as the three sample dudes. I better learn to paint stuff quickly because in November I have to do a Vendetta...
Despite my terrible record when it comes to painting, I have actually finished a few things for the army - these guys for example, have a painted Chimera to ride around in:
Finally, and also painted but not weathered properly, a trio of drop sentinels and some cool battlesuits, aka my 'ogryns':
Hobby commitment for October!
So, my overall plan is to participate in a year-long hobby progress challenge for 2014, which will be for 1850 points, I think.
In order to prepare for that, I'm going to paint a unit each month for the remainder of 2013. This is also good because it will allow me to finish off the units that are already in progress and start (more or less) with a totally unpainted 1850 for the challenge.
This month, my goal will be to complete an infantry squad:
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| These poor guys have been 'uniform gray' for far too long... |
You may notice that a couple of these guys are actually already painted - I did these several months ago as the test pieces for the whole army... I then proceeded to not paint the rest of the army, but that ends this month!
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| Behold! The entirety of my painted infantry! |
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| Each more gray than the last. |
Despite my terrible record when it comes to painting, I have actually finished a few things for the army - these guys for example, have a painted Chimera to ride around in:
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| I have yet to learn the ways of weathering stuff so this is not "finished"... but it is painted. |
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| You know, I might even learn how to take photos of stuff as I proceed through this challenge... |
Saturday, 22 June 2013
Okay! So that didn't go according to plan at all...
Instead of my original idea I appear to have been forced to leave all of my 40k stuff behind during the move to the UK. This does not bode well for hobby progress or wargaming in general... However, we've decided to focus on board games for a little while (at least until I can get some of my gear shipped/brought over to London). Also, if the rumours about Apocalypse 2.0 coming out in July prove true, there will surely be a super-heavy kit or terrain piece to pick up which should give me something to work on until the rest of the troops arrive in August/September.
In the meantime I'm just going to throw together some quick reviews/opinion pieces on the various board games that we try out!
Today, I made my way to the Orcs Nest (which even from our brief visit I would highly recommend) with the aim of grabbing Pandemic and King of Tokyo. I failed on both counts as neither will apparently be available until July... *but* instead, came away with Star Fluxx, Carcassonne and Death Angel (Space Hulk). I'm hoping the last one will satisfy my 40k urges for the moment. We chose Carcassonne because it's pretty highly rated and supposedly 'best' with 2 players, the other two were somewhat random selections. I'll share my thought son each of these once we've had a chance to sit down and play.
Instead of my original idea I appear to have been forced to leave all of my 40k stuff behind during the move to the UK. This does not bode well for hobby progress or wargaming in general... However, we've decided to focus on board games for a little while (at least until I can get some of my gear shipped/brought over to London). Also, if the rumours about Apocalypse 2.0 coming out in July prove true, there will surely be a super-heavy kit or terrain piece to pick up which should give me something to work on until the rest of the troops arrive in August/September.
In the meantime I'm just going to throw together some quick reviews/opinion pieces on the various board games that we try out!
Today, I made my way to the Orcs Nest (which even from our brief visit I would highly recommend) with the aim of grabbing Pandemic and King of Tokyo. I failed on both counts as neither will apparently be available until July... *but* instead, came away with Star Fluxx, Carcassonne and Death Angel (Space Hulk). I'm hoping the last one will satisfy my 40k urges for the moment. We chose Carcassonne because it's pretty highly rated and supposedly 'best' with 2 players, the other two were somewhat random selections. I'll share my thought son each of these once we've had a chance to sit down and play.
Sunday, 14 April 2013
Forge World Open Day 2013
I've wanted to go check it out for a long time now and the Forge World Open Day provided the perfect pretence. Myself and my buddy made all of our preparations a few months back; we snapped up Open Day tickets as soon as they were available, booked our flights and made a hotel reservation... but alas, it was not to be. At least, not for him. Suffice it to say that a much more important event took place that required his full attention (and certainly, that he be in the right country at the time). So, instead, my girlfriend joined me on the epic voyage over the seas to Games Workshop HQ... And to be fair, we did also manage to find a really good Indian restaurant and see a pretty impressive castle, so it was by no means a total loss for her.
Getting there from the hotel proved a little tricky but this was solely due to roadworks in the city... if you're staying in the city centre and plan on walking, the canal tow path is pleasant enough way to get there. Be warned though, it's currently blocked off at the bridges nearest to GW HQ. We used our amazing ninja skills to sneak around this seemingly impassable obstacle but such feats would not be recommended for anyone carrying large army cases or anything else that might impede your progress through minefields/razor-wire.
I wasn't sure what to expect from the place at all. To give you an idea, it's basically a couple of office/warehouse type buildings, one of which houses the miniatures hall, gaming/event area, bar and store - the other areas remained a mystery but are presumably where the resin mines and plastic forges are located. Also, I would imagine people actually work there and have you know, offices and things.
Moving inside, you head upstairs to the gaming/event hall (if you go upstairs again you'll get to the miniatures hall where all of the various army displays are). For the Open Day this was mostly taken up with a gigantic queue of people trying to buy Forge World gear. I'm guessing that equal parts fear (of limited stock) and excitement (at the shiny new book and resin things) kept these people queueing for the first hour or so. I don't really blame them but in truth I wasn't that interested in the new stuff this year, so we bee-lined straight for the bar. Now, you might think this was a waste of precious Open Day time but I assure you, my life would have been forfeit if I had not provided sustenance for my accomplice immediately (for we had not yet feasted that day).
Bugman's Bar is great - it's decorated in proper Warhammer Fantasy style and has a pretty good sense of humour about it. Plenty of shields, weapons and the occasional Orc head decorate the walls. If you're here for a long day of gaming or any big event, you'll probably end up eating and/or drinking here. Which, it turns out, is a good idea because the food was pretty good!
So, once the dreaded hunger had been sated we moved into the area (it was labelled a restaurant so maybe that's what it usually is...) that had been set aside for the actual Open Day. The walls of the room were lined with display cabinets, each manned by a member of the Forge World design team who were available to take questions and just generally chat about all things Forge World.
I managed to talk to quite a few of the guys that are primarily working on Heresy / IA miniatures. I'm not sure how much they're 'allowed' to tell us but it didn't seem as though they were being overly tight-lipped. They all seemed to be genuinely nice and were happy to talk to people at length about anything that was on display.
In terms of what was on show, my favourites are below:
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| Heresy Era Land Speeder |
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| Another view of this, note the lascannons which may or may not actually be a valid armament... |
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| Zone Mortalis Display - This was themed to be a World Eaters boarding action against a Salamanders ship but my love of the Imperial Navy drew my attention to the row of Lightnings. |
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| HH Legion Praetors - I can feel my resistance to Heresy era miniatures crumbling... |
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| Minotaur named Contemptor (although I forget his name now). |
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| HH Whirlwind - Not sure about this one in its current state but the finished version may still impress. |
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| Legion Fellglaive - Volkite main gun apparently, quite an impressive sight. |
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| Rapier platforms with graviton gun and quad heavy bolters - nice, but no idea how effective these are. |
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| Realm of Battle tile with earthworks - Pretty sure this is a Fantasy piece but some light conversion work would turn it into a fine Imperial Guard siege position! |
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| Realm of Battle tile with crashed Thunderhawk - This is the raw version and the sheer level of detail really shows through here. |
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| A painted version of the above RoB tile - This was part of the IA12 display board (as evidenced by the Minotaur casualty). |
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| The Necron side of the IA12 board - The new bombers are pretty amazing in person. |
And that was pretty much it, in a nutshell. We had to leave early since we needed to make our way back (seemingly all the way across middle-earth) to the airport. As a final judgement, with the flights and epic bus transfer (and having now actually seen the whole place once), I would say that it's probably not the kind of trip I'd be in a hurry to do again... However, since I'm moving to the UK anyway before next years Open Day... it wouldn't *be* the same trip... so we'll see.
Tuesday, 9 April 2013
A beginning...
So, where to start such an endeavour as this?
I suppose a statement of intent would be a good first step.
My "plan", such as it is, is to use this as a tool to track my general hobby progress. We're specifically talking Warhammer 40k and possibly some other game systems as time progresses (my Dindrenzi fleet is probably more 'complete' than any of my 40k armies...).
I'm thinking that this will be helpful to me for a few reasons:
1) I'm really, really slow at painting things. Not necessarily the act of painting itself but more just getting around to it in the first place. Hopefully this will serve as a driver to just get things done so I can show them off to the world - not that my work will be world class! But that's not the point, it's just about getting things complete.
2) Very soon, I'll be moving to another country and it will become a bit harder to get in games with my regular opponent! This should allow us to maintain some friendly competition in another way - painting challenges. He has at least as many unfinished miniatures as I do so we would both benefit greatly from regular progress goals!
3) I've been playing 40k and collecting GW miniatures (admittedly on-and-off) since I was a wee lad. At one point I quit the hobby outright because all of the guys I was playing with had done the same. I sold my miniatures off, got rid of my 2nd edition codex books and collection of ancient 80's era White Dwarf mags... and have regretted it ever since. This will serve as something of a permanent record/reference of all the work I've put into these things - perhaps it will prevent me from making such a mistake a second time!
I'm not really sure how regular updates will be for the moment. My next post will be all about my trip to Warhammer World for the Forge World open day last weekend. From there, I think I'd like to catalogue my Imperial Guard (and possibly Tyranids) army by unit. I imagine that this will serve as a good record of how things were at the start of this project. It should (unless I fail...) be very interesting to compare the army to it's old self in a years time.
As it stands I have about 5,000 points of IG all fully assembled and primed but with very little of it actually painted to completion. In fact, I can count the complete units on one hand and, while I really like the overall theme, I'm not quite happy with some of the details on those units. Tyranids come in at about 3,000 points... also mostly unfinished, but they aren't the priority.
It's a pretty big backlog to get through but that's one reason that I'm doing this...
I've ended up in this situation mostly because I really, really love building miniatures... almost all of my IG units have minor conversions or customisations. That's probably my favourite part of the hobby. I do enjoy playing the games but painting has always been less of a concern. In the past I've kind of considered a unit to be complete once it was built and primed but I'm trying to get away from that attitude. I do have a dream of someday having a fully painted army!
Oh, and the name... well, secretly I'm a Tau sympathiser... there's a Tau army in there somewhere too. They actually ARE fully painted, shockingly, but they are very old now and need a major revamp before any human can again lay eyes upon them.
I think that's enough ramblings from me... for now.
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