Weird Pros and Cons

Ork Weirdboyz are a unit I'm taking a serious second look at with the new edition.  I think the figure above is going to be getting some friends if I can manage enough variety in the models.  On to the advantages and disadvantages.

Lots of Tanks

I've been working on a huge force of IG tanks for a friend of mine.  Progress has been pretty slow with me squeezing in what time I can between classes.  Start to finish, the total time ended up being about 10 months, but thankfully my friend was not in a rush.  Total number of hours spent was probably around 50.  I really didn't keep careful track though, so that could be pretty far off.  Anyway, here's the complete set of 16 tanks.

I was told to create a desert themed set of tanks that looked like they'd been in the field a while.  They came primed the lovely tan color that is the base on all the vehicles.

After a bit of research it occurred to me that my typical rust approach wouldn't really fit in with a desert theme.

So, rather than rust I decided to try to make them look like they'd been sand blasted.

Step one was to sponge some scorched brown over all the the edges.  Any corner got tagged with a scattering of brown paint.

The next step, which was probably the most time consuming, was to carefully paint a coat of silver inside the brown from the previous step.

I then picked out all of the rivets to add a bit more interest.

After that it was just a matter of finishing up the details and sealing everything.

I'm rather pleased with the final look.  There's a few things I think I probably could have done better though.

Some level of shading/highlighting to the base color I think would have made the final product a little more interesting.

The tan surfaces are still just a little too flat, but once the weathering went on there was really no way to go back and change it.

Ork Big Mek: Phase 1

Threw together a Big Mek with a kustom force field recently.  He's pretty much just made with random stuff I had lying around.  I'm rather pleased with the overall effect.  He's a lot more interesting looking than my last one.  A painted version should be coming along shortly.

This particular model is for a story campaign a friend and I are planning.  Should be a lot of fun.  I'm really looking forward to playing some stranger games.  Things I don't get to do in my usual run of only attending tourneys.  Uneven point values, weird force org charts, lopsided deployments and bizarre objectives.  I'm excited.

2500 point Ork List mark 2

After a bit of thought I've gone ahead and made some changes to my initial Ork list.  The original list can be found here.  The original list didn't really have any good ways to deal with storm shield armed terminators, and since those are a staple of tourney lists, at least in my area, I decided I needed to address the issue.

First the list:

Dark Eldar WIP

Here's some work-in-progress shots of my friend's Dark Eldar that we've been grinding away on over the last couple months.  Just about everything still needs some basic work before it can be called finished, but the whole army is coming along quite nicely and at a rather fast pace.  We've been getting together most Sundays and spending the day painting away.  Some basic techniques for the colors are included after each picture.  Once they're finished I'll get some less washed out photos posted.  The black background makes for a cool look, but all the light colors and metallics end up getting washed out.

Ghazghkull Conversion

A friend of mine gave me a Ghazghkull model for Christmas that I finally got around to assembling.  I've never been a big fan of the pose of the model or the details coming off the top, so I made some adjustments along the way.

The head was replaced with the one from the Assault on Black Reach warboss.  Reposing the power klaw arm was a little difficult since the sockets for everything are done as squares so things only fit together one way.  I cut away the cable that connects to the main body and filed everything smooth., cut off the peg, and pinned it in place in a different position.  The bosspole is from the plastic nob box and the flames are from a couple of spare Sister of Battle Cannoness backpacks I had lying around.  The flames and the bosspole can be removed so they can be used as wound counters.

I'm hoping to get him painted before classes start again on Monday.

Ork Lootas

Finished the first of my lootas finally.  They're taking quite a bit longer than most of the rest of the force due to the sheer number of details.  Once I finished with the base colors I painted them one at a time to make sure I didn't miss anything.  Here's the first three just before I flocked them.  They're a bit shiny at the moment, but the matte sealant should tone the metals down just a little.

 

2500 point Ork thoughts

I've been working on my orks again and rather enjoying it.  I'm looking forward to getting the force prepared for some larger events.  Hopefully I'll have a 2500 point army ready in time for 'ard boyz this year.  My orks are probably a less competitive force than my guard, but they are a lot more fun to play.

Battle Report, 1500 point Tournament

My Daemons had another tournament outing last weekend at my local game store.  This was a 1500 point, 4 round event with 90 minutes per round.  This was a little short for some people, but I had little trouble finishing my games.  That's always an advantage to playing Daemons, plenty of time to chat with friends between rounds.  No pictures once again, cause I can't seem to remember to take them.  I even had my camera with me.

My list:
2 Great Unclean Ones, cloud of Flies
3 Squads of 6 Fiends of Slaanesh, unholy strength
3 Squads of 5 plaguebearers
2 Daemons Princes, mark of Nurgle, iron hide, cloud of flies, breath of chaos, and noxious touch

Nurgle Dreadnought

I was feeling a little overwhelmed with classes yesterday and decided to take a little time to work on a quick casual paint job.  The conversions on the dreadnought itself were done some years ago by a friend of mine.  I only needed to redo the close combat arm and fix up a few little things and it was on to painting.  The base isn't painted yet, but I wanted to share him while the techniques used were still fresh in my mind.

Imperial Guard Apocalypse

I've been working on getting my Steel Legion ready for their first Apocalypse engagement for most of the last month.  I now have a 5,000 point army ready to go.  All of the infantry are completely painted and the vehicles all have their camo patterns finished.

There are 23 vehicles and 130 infantry.  A force that has been building for 11 years now, and I am quite proud of how far they've come.

Weathering Practice

A friend of mine generously donated the use of one of his Rhino's so I could practice a few weathering techniques.  The vehicles used by his 13th company space wolves have seen a lot of abuse of the last 10,000 year,s so I got to go a bit crazy with the rust effects.

Commissar Yarrick Completed

After having the model for 11 years I have finally completed my Commissar Yarrick.  I got the model along with the Steel Legion boxed army in 1999 and just never got around to putting paint on it until now.  All things considered I'm rather glad I waited.  My skills prior to the last few years weren't up to the task.  It's a very detailed model and I hope I've done it justice.

Finished Daemon Prince

I finally managed to find something I was satisfied with as a base for the Black Legion Daemon Prince.  I picked up a vinyl floor tile and broke it into pieces.  The sloped piece at the back is there to support the tail as well as add a bit more interest to the base.  The base was then primed white, washed with Asurmen Blue, and sponge painted Skull white.  Overall a very easy process with some excellent results.

Dark Eldar Warrior

Painted a quick test model for a friend's Dark Eldar army.  My goal was to create a scheme that looked decent and was fast and easy to replicate.  I'm reasonably pleased.  The armour turned out looking rather blood splattered, which was the general idea.  I'm rather disappointed with the loincloth, so I'll need to come up with an alternative for that.

 

Best of all, the model only took about 20 minutes to paint not counting waiting for paint to dry. Here's hoping the owner is pleased.

Winged Daemon Prince

I've finally gotten around to starting in on a Be'Lakor model that I've had sitting around for quite some time.  It will be an addition to my friend's Black Legion army.  I'm rather pleased with its current state.  The sword turned out exceptionally well.

I haven't started in on the base yet.  It will be some sort of snow base, but I need to find something to put under his feet to raise him up a little.  This older model isn't quite as large as the new one and I'd like to make the size difference a little less noticeable.  I should have the base finished in the next day or two, provided I can find what I'm looking for.


In the next few days I expect to be finishing up a Jain-zar model for another friend as well as another small figure and hopefully finishing pinning together a few war walkers and wraithlords.

On Fighting Daemons, Battle Report

Here's the promised battle report against my Daemons.  I hadn't originally planned this battle as a How-to on beating my daemon army, but that's rather how it worked out.  Not much suspense regarding the end result but hopefully the process will be at least somewhat enlightening.

On Fighting Daemons

I've been playing my daemons a lot lately and doing fairly well with them.  Even during my draws I usually kill more of my opponents army than they do of mine.  My army is reasonably powerful, but I'm really winning more games because of my opponent's inexperience than any other reason.  Daemons are relatively uncommon around here and people just don't know how to defeat them.  So in the interest in having more tactically challenging matches I'd like to share some thoughts on the best ways to defeat my army.  I will be following up on this article with a battle report demonstrating some of the ideas as soon as I get the pictures straightened out.

Daemons Battle Report 2k

I took my 2000 point Daemons army to a tournament last Saturday.  I have a lot less confidence in the 2k version of my list than I do in the 1750 point version.  The extra 250 points really doesn't get me all that much.  I get 3 sets of wings for my daemon princes and 2 plaguebearers with icons.  Not exactly a substantial difference.  Still, the army performed reasonably well, getting me second place overall.  The wings I created for the princes also turned out reasonably well.  I wasn't able to get the join with the body as seamless as I wanted, but the magnets worked out pretty well.  I'd be even happier if I could get them to stay flat, but I've had no luck with that so far.

Plans for the Near Future

I've got a couple major projects I'm working on for the next couple months.  The first of which is expanding my Daemon army to 2000 points for a tournament later this month.  I'm currently planning to add wings to my 3 daemon princes and another group of 5 plaguebearers.  The plaguebearers are an easy addition once I find someone who has them in stock.  The wings are going to be a bit more challenging, but I'm hopeful I'll be able to get them finished in time.  I have even found the perfect wings for the project.