Hobby Diary 11/12/16

An interesting week for me, I'm now up to six frigates for my UCM and more or less have my colour scheme nailed at this point. It's still not perfect and it's not what I had envisioned by any means but overall it's about as good as I'm going to get and I'm looking forward to getting the fleet done at an increased pace right now.

There has been so much vitriol levelled at Dropzone Commander recently. Disgruntled backers are something that I am certainly used to having backed my fair share of Kickstarters some of which have gone spectacularly awry, but this is a level of toxicity that frankly makes me ashamed to be a part of the community. Let's remember that this campaign, although running late, (I am still awaiting one of my pledges after all) finished barely a year ago. That's a brand new range and game produced and (mostly) delivered in a year. I'm sorry, but in comparison to many Kickstarters that is damn miraculous. Still, it must be said that Hawk have NOT covered themselves in glory here, their organisation and communication has been sub par and as with so many companies it seems that they have woefully underestimated the shipping process. Really six months was a VERY optimistic timescale and it is no surprise they didn't meet that target.

All that said, I would like the game to succeed and look forward to facing Lee in orbital combat sometime soon. Though I don't think he has done much with his fleet, I think he has been focusing very much on Heresy stuff recently.

Which I should be really, and I can assure you that that time IS coming, I have made some progress on my Contemptor but a road bump or two has somewhat curtailed my progress.

The Contemptor was looking really good, Though I am still but the most novice of airbrush users I have to say I am incredibly impressed by the way that  you can build up layers of  paint, both as a time saver and for the finish you end up with it just cant be beat. I'd added some Ultramarine Blue Vallejo Air, improvised some highlights and I was feeling pretty good about the way it was looking.

Until I compared it to the captain that I had already done. Upon comparison the Contemptor was SEVERAL shades lighter, far too many to get away with. I had two options, either lighten up the Captain or darken the Contemptor.

Anyone who has seen my painting (hell the picture of the UCM frigates enough is illustration enough) will know that my 'style' as it were is NOT bright and colourful. No, I tend to paint things very dark, sometimes I think too dark. So I opted to try to bring the Contemptor down a bit. It was the wrong decision. I tried to add a heavy wash of Drakenhoff Nightshade to bring it in line with the Captain a bit more. However, it collected and pooled and overall ruined the nice clean finish I had. Damn and Bugger. I tried to fix it by adding a mid tone and blending the colours a little but it didn't really work. That is the main reason the Contemptor is not finished yet. A shame, I had got it looking really quite nice, I particularly liked the Gold Trim. I'll be doing some heavy weathering to it to hide my painting sins and mistakes.

So with the Contemptor put to one side for now I did what I should have done all along, tried to lighten up the captain.

Really all it involved was trying to bring it up to the Ultramarine Blue through a number of midtones, I was at least partially successful, it's another one of those where I'm just going to leave it before I make it any worse, It's in the it''ll do' category. They at least look like they belong to the same army now. I'll look to get the Contemptor finished and then compare them again, providing I can live with the results I'll be in the position to proceed full steam ahead with the Ultramarines.

So overall this week I'm fairly happy with my progress, I have never been the fastest or most proficient of painters but as long as I am painting something it's gotta be worthwhile right? Christmas is just round the corner but my main plan is to get a cruiser and three more frigates done for the UCM as they are half done already and to get the Contemptor done as well. On the side I have the Silver Tower stuff undercoated and ready to be worked on. I have made a start on some Screamers but I'm mainly going to focus on the stuff actually being used in the game at the moment.

Speaking of games I played some Silver Tower with my Girlfriend. We already had one amulet piece so the choice of challenge was up to us and we got our arses handed to us as we chose one of the harder ones (can't remember which one). Next time round we played a different one and succeeded in securing another amulet piece. I really hope  that GW do an expansion to the game at some point, the base game will only last so long.

The other game we have been playing a lot of is Formula D. I do intend to do a full review of the game for the Conclave at some point but I will say it's a lot of fun. I'm grateful to Wil Wheaton's Tabletop for making me aware of it's existence. Vroom Vroom!

So what has Lee been up to then?

Well Allen is absolutely correct with his comment that I have been concentrating on my Heresy stuff and here are the results, two more completed units! So far this month I have completed the plastic Contemptor from the Calth box and a Rhino to transport my Tactical Veteran squad, or as is more likely once more units are painted, my Heavy Flamer unit.

I've gone heavy on the blasphemous script as I don't want these guys getting mistaken for Blood Angels! How embarrassing. With the Contemptor I had considered adding horns above the head but decided against it once I added the missile launcher. As mentioned before my Word Bearers are lacking in heavy weaponry in their infantry selections in my army as the majority are close combat oriented so I have maximised the amount of fire power I can get out of this model.

I could have replaced the close combat weapon with another gun but I like my dreads to be able to punch back in a fight and the two units I am currently working on, a Deredeo and Leviathan, both lack close combat weaponry so leaving this one gives me a walker with flexibility. Plus I want to see mine and Allen's Contemptor's go head to head at some point without me being at a disadvantage. Of course I could always sic a Mahra Ghal on it but that is overkill.

The Rhino is a Deimos pattern with some Word Bearer brass etched icons attached. I didn't do very much to this. I could have really chaos-ified it but I have been giving that a bit of thought and decided not to.

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During the Heresy the Word Bearers were beginning their journey along the dark path. Only the highest ranking and most devout legionaries were manifesting real signs of change. Therefore I will be adding more chaos iconography to the officers and elites and keeping the additions to the line troopers more subtle. I hope that way to show a transition throughout my army. 

Although I also intent to use these models as Chaos Space Marines in 40k I didn't want to just be using Chaos Marines for Heresy games. Still, with the new Legions Codex that has just been release my Word Bearers will be pulling double duty.

Now for the bad news. I broke my airbrush. I was just cleaning it, nothing too rough but when reattaching the fine end nozzle I turned a bit too much and it broke off. This has put a dent in my plans to get on with my Scourge fleet however I have found some £10 airbrushes in China so will be picking one (or two) up after Xmas to get back on track. Till next time.

Hobby Diary 4th December 2016

Bit of an odd week really, the first week that I haven't engaged in hobby everyday despite having a week off work, I did manage to squeeze a game of Silver Tower in though and undercoated the models as I was reminded of just how nice they are. I chose to undercoat the vast majority of the models white as I'll be aiming for bright colours befitting Tzeentch's chosen. Of course there are a few models that require a black undercoat such as the Grot Crawlers and a few of the Heroes.

The game itself didn't go so well, to be fair we were attempting one of the harder trials maybe someway before we should. We were doing well but then a couple of unlucky rolls saw us get attacked by Deathleaper and then finished off by a group of Tzaangors. That'll learn us. Oh well.

Other than that I tried to do some more to the UCM fleet but my back started to play up so sitting bent over a painting desk was a no go. I got a little more done before it gave out but not as much as I liked.

So it was back to assembly, I had done a trade with a mate for another set of Cultists from Overkill so i got those done, converting a few to use the shotguns i had left over from the neophytes box. I'm really looking forward to getting these painted, It's a big job too, there are a LOT of models there. Still, I am determined that they will be my next 40k project.

In the meantime i haven't forgotten about 30k and I had intended to get a Contemptor AND a Tactical Squad but mental and physical problems had killed that plan off. It had not been a good week. I did manage to get one of the Contemptors painted but that was about as far as it got.

So a blip to be sure but after doing hobby everyday for quite some time a small lapse seems reasonable. I have some games with Lee scheduled for this weekend so they will feature in next months diary. I still have two days to get the Contemptor done though so you never know, though it seems very unlikely at this moment in time.

Lee

I have completely thrown my painting schedule out the window and gone on a hobby binge of Horus Heresy model construction. I haven't made all of my models as I have a shortage of 32mm bases and Word Bearer shoulder pads but they are on order. While I wait for them to arrive there is a queue of constructed and primed models awaiting my attention and with time off week on the horizon having I need plenty to do.

First up is Lorgar.Though he is not the most powerful of Primarchs he will be a monster once he gets amongst regular troops. If he is in my army then my Word Bearers get buffs to their leadership and combat results. He is a psyker as well which is hard to come by in most lists.

I converted a Legion Centurion with a jump pack who I will use at the head of my assault force. I have three units with jump packs, one assault squad and 2 Ashen Circle which will be a fast stab into my opponents guts. He is made from the body of a Legion Champion with an added jump pack, I added a possessed head to show his favour in the eyes of the pantheon. He is armed with a thunder hammer and plasma pistol so that he has some real heavy armour smashing ability. My Ashen Circle are biased towards any infantry so they need someone to back them up who can whack dreadnoughts and the like.

As command support I have two Apothecaries and a Master of Signals. The Apothecaries can either be a Primus Medicae upgrade for a Centurion which offers the potential for additional victory points or as an Apothecarion detachment allowing me to attach them to squads and increase their survivability The Master of Signal can call down a bombardment that will help my heavy support starved Dark Brethren detachments.

This Breacher squad is an additional troops choice to pad out my army requirements. They are also my first MkIII armour unit.The Sergeant has been modified with an old plastic chaos warrior head that really looks at home with the simple design of the MkIII armour.

This recon squad is also a troops unit. I aim to have them targeting army characters and special troops. I have a lot of bikes and some jet bikes that I can include later on that will give me a decent scouting army. That needs another squad of these, a character on a bike and some speeders for additional heavy support.

Burning heretics seems to be a passion of the Word Bearers so these heavy flamers fit right in. As they need to get up close to the enemy to give him a severe tan I will likely have them in a Rhino to get them where they need to be.

If there is someone who absolutely positively needs to be taken off the board then these Volkite Culverins will do the job. They spew out 4 shots each and each unsaved wound generates an additional hit. They may not have much in the way of armour penetration but the enemy has a lot of dice to roll for saving throws.

This Deimos pattern Rhino will accompany the Heavy Flamers if they are included otherwise there are Tactical squads that can make use of it.

Another flame unit, the Predator Infernus. All the weapons are magnetised which lets me swap out the Flamestorm cannon for a Magna-melta depending on the situation.

This trio of dreads are added to the two Mahra Gal dreads I have so I have quite a walker heavy force. Each of these is heavily armed and is designed to fill in for the lack of tank busting weaponry the rest of my units have. As well as this I have constructed my corrupted Knight who has magnetised carapace weaponry that I can swap depending on whether there are flyers in the opposing army.

I have a lot of daemons so so took this time as an opportunity to put some together. The three Plague Toads can double up as Beasts of Nurgle and the Fiends of Slaanesh can dole out a lot of attacks. You don't see them on the battlefield often so I reckon they will surprise a lot of people once they get into combat. With Codex Traitor Legions due out shortly I will need a lot of demons as this appears to be what the Word Bearers are most famous for ten thousand years later. I'll get round to them once this lot are painted.