The Legion Wars Begin!

Ok, so it's been a while and I haven't posted any updates. You know how it is: Life, work etc etc. So what have I been up to? Well, shortly after swearing off any new hobby projects and committing to painting the models I already own, I went totally nuts and started putting together a 1000 point Night Lords Legion army for the Horus Heresy. Building and painting has begun in earnest and I'm thrilled with how the VIIIth legion are turning out so far.

I've also begun a small build-and-paint escalation campaign against Berserkerbro's Salamanders. Here's a little mid-battle photo of my Sergeant getting mown down by a bunch of scouts.

Sergeant Bathinko's last moments....

Here's a very short piece of fiction I wrote to accompany the photo and commemorate his defeat.

Sergeant Bathinko screamed as he bore down on the crouching scout. The vox caster built into his ornate helm amplified his screams into an inhuman roar. The Salamander reacted instantly, turning on the spot and unleashing hail of mass-reactive bolts. Most of the shots went wide, the few that struck home detonated harmlessly against Bathinko’s armour. As the scout drew his combat blade, Bathinko raised his chainglaive, the teeth of the brutal weapon whining as they cut empty air. His first stroke was a massive downward cut with both hands that would have cut an Astartes warrior clean in half had it struck home. The scout had anticipated his move however and stepped inside his guard jabbing viciously at the exposed cabling of Bathinko’s midriff with his blade. Bathinko’s retinal display lit up as his armour sustained damage to its power feeds and with another scream he swung the haft of his chainglaive outwards, knocking his opponent into the dirt. The Salamander reacted instantly, rolling to his knees and firing his bolter one handed. The single shot smashed into Bathinko’s faceplate scrambling his vision and severing one of the crests from his helm. Blinded and enraged, Bathinko swung the chainglaive downwards with all his strength. The pitiless chewing teeth sawed through the stock of the upraised bolter and into the torso of the kneeling scout.

                As his retinal display recalibrated, Bathinko’s sight returned. He looked down upon the savaged body of the Salamanders scout lying prone before him. His audio receptors picked up the distinctive sound of a boltgun slide being racked. Bathinko had just enough time to look up at the remaining two scouts aiming down at him from the gantry above. In the time it took him to draw breath he was bracketed by their co-ordinated fire; the barrage of shells shredding the grisly trophies attached to his armour and splintering the ceramite plating. One shoulder guard was completely torn away by the torrent; he tried to turn, to protect his head with the other shoulder guard only to be knocked to the ground, sustaining damage faster than his auto senses could track. Bleeding profusely from several serious wounds Bathinko used the last of his strength to draw breath and screamed.

BerserkerBro - Deff Dread

BerserkerBro - Deff Dread

Two posts in one day - amazing stuff!! Just wanted to share an excellent conversion from the mysterious man known as BerserkerBro. A converted Deff Dread crewed by Grots of course!

Another towering monstrosity from the hands of BerserkerBro.

Obviously it's not done being painted yet; but I think we can all agree, that's one huge metal beastie he's made there! 

Just for a little perspective for those of you not too familiar with GW products. Nearly every part of the model is converted or customised and it stands over twice as tall as the original kit! Or to use an analogy, BerserkerBro is to converting what Makoto Nagano is to Ninja Warrior.

The legend himself - Why so serious?

By comparison, I would be this guy:

Call me MR octopus!

Second Edition Madness

Wednesday Night Showdown - Squats vs Tyranids

This is just a quick round up of the game of 40k second edition between my Tyranids and Keith's Squats last Wednesday. I'm not going to write a full battle report because I don't really remember who did what to who etc. Also I'm very lazy. For those who haven't had the pleasure of a hearty game of second edition I will summarize the differences below:

1 - The shooting phase uses the archaic system of 'to hit' modifiers based on cover, speed of target etc. There are also restrictions based on model facing and closest target. This turns every shooting phase into a sort of gentleman's agreement.

Me: I'll let you shoot my Termagants if you take a hard cover modifier.
Gentleman Opponent: Very sporting of you old bean. Of course I will expect your Termagants to endure the same hardship upon returning fire.
Me: Damn you Gentleman Opponent!! Ok, we'll say soft cover.
GO: Splendid! Fresh horses and Sarsaparilla for all my men!!

2 - You can cast psychic powers in your opponent's turn as well as your own. This is particularly good fun if he/she doesn't have any psykers.

3 - The colours are brighter, the templates are bigger and everything is 400% more awesome.

Ugly models, garish colours and dice with funny symbols on them. - AWESOME!!!

As Keith was playing the role of gentleman opponent; he was kind enough to let me use the old Armorcast rules for my Haruspex. He then proceeded to immobilize it and destroy half of it's ranged weapons on turn 1. And before anybody asks; yes it counts as a vehicle. In spite of these setbacks it still went on to kill both the Squat Warlord and Engineer Guildmaster before the end of the game.

Always does me proud - no matter the edition.

Other stars of the Tyranid horde were the Hive Tyrant who reaped a steady tally of Squats with his Venom Cannon. The Zoanthrope, who ran riot in every Psychic phase and my warriors, who spent the entire game stubbornly refusing to fail their armour saves. I should probably mention at this point that Keith's army included five mole mortars. FIVE!! That's really the reason why my infantry didn't achieve much. They were either dead or stuck in exploding mole mortar craters.

At any rate, the game ended in yet another victory for the Tyranids. I for one can't wait for the re-match; especially if I can use my Lictor.

Dark Eldar Painting Progress

Grotesques:

Finally I have emerged from the depths of painting torture with a worthwhile offering! It seems like it took me an eternity to turn out one of these things (probably because the whole process was frustrating) but I have completed converting and painting an Aberration for my unit of Grotesques.

Isn't he cute!

Apologies for the quality of the photos, it's what happens when you use an antiquated camera from work because you can't be bothered to go upstairs and find a decent one.

Obviously he's based on the Warhammer Vampire Counts Crypt Ghoul chassis but with some Talos Pain Engine parts thrown in for good measure. Chopping and changing the parts was pretty easy; the difficult part was sculpting a loincloth out of green stuff to hide the unsightly furry mound where (presumably) his junk would normally be. However, I was pleased with the end result (sadly the photos don't really show off my sculpting).

As usual the painting was far more taxing than the conversion work. First I worried about the colour of the flesh; I wanted it to blend in with the rest of the army but still look sore and pallid. I don't know if I really managed pallid; but a dab of Khorne red mixed in and glazed over the top was pretty effective for making him look injured and in pain.

Who are you calling ugly?

I ran into painter’s block when I realised the amount of components that would need to be painted in metallic colours (I hate painting metal!). I wanted the metals to look darker and more corroded than my usual Eldar colours. A couple of washes of Agrax Earthshade and Nuln Oil created a nice base for me to highlight from; and overall I’m pretty pleased with the end result. So pleased in fact that I've made good headway into painting the rest of the unit. Now if only they had a transport.........