Shadow Wars Armageddon Game Report.

Scout Sergeant Apollyon lowered his mag-nocs, checked his chronometer and scowled. The enemy were late, this wasn't part of the the plan. He activated his long range vox.
'Base, this is Apollyon, confirm time of estimated enemy contact'
The vox in his ear cracked and hissed. Communications had proven to be problematic of late, following a number of pitched battles his squad had been pushed further into the depths of Hive Acheron, the tall structures and haphazard myriad radiations had plagued any signals from base, he adjusted his vox settings and strained to listen for any reply. Though squeals of static he discerned a response.
'Apollyon, Base. Tim... ... ... mated Xenos contact confirmed. La... .....rts have the greenskins within 500 metres...... .... position. They should ...... right ... you. Hol..  ...sition.'
'Base, Apollyon, confirmed .'
He shut off the vox and scowled again, to his right were Orosius and Zakian. Both of them swept their area in front of them with their bolters. A glance from Zakian was all he needed to confirm they too had not sighted the greenskins. He thumbed his vox again, choosing the short range setting this time.
'Aryius. talk to me, any sighting of the greenskin filth?' as he spoke he raised his mag-nocs, peering into the darkness through the devices enhanced optics, even his superhuman senses couldn't detect any Ork activity..
Nothing here Sergeant, this, isn't right, the Orks aren't subtle, they don't hide, we should be able to SMELL them from here. 
They will come brother, the Ork are a force of nature, they are relentless and formidable but they are predictable, you, Caeon and Nikaeon need to continue your vigilance'
Aye sergeant, we'll see them from up here, The Emperor protects'
Apollyon looked up at the snipers position in nearby building, in such an elevated and concealed position the field of fire they were afforded would leave the orks no chance, whenever they chose to appear. The practicals were in place and the theoreticals were covered.
That he does brother, that he does, he murmured.

Boss Snikbang! eased himself over the corroded pipe, carefully placing his booted feet down onto a dry patch of flooring so as not to cause any unnecessary noise. He had managed to get far enough into the Hive interior zones that he could see the winking lights of the 'oomie perimeter defences through the gloom ahead. Around him he was sure his boys were getting into position, good lads the lot of them. It wasn't just their stealth skills that marked them out but their spanking shiny boots and the way they threw a crisp salute whenever he uttered an order. Proper Blood Axes. 

Boss Snikbang! studied what was ahead. The dense jumble of coolant pipes that he and the boys had crossed to get this far were opening out and he could see streets separating a collection of walkways and bulkier machinery. He went to give the signal to advance, three light taps on the pipe in front of him.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Snikbang froze. His jaw hanging open. He was a tough boy and could punch the head right of a 'oomie if he needed to but he had tried to be gentle when giving the signal.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

Now that was odd. He hadn't even hit the pipe that time. Snikbang! looked around to see if he could figure out who was making that racket. He threw a nervous glance towards the'oomie compound in case one of them squishy zoggers heard the noise and came to investigate. 

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

That had come from his right, or left, Snikbang! never bothered to learn the terms. His axe hand or his lobbing hand was how he remembered them, got to have a system his old drill sergeant had said. He looked in the direction denoted by his lobbing hand, out in the open, strolling along without a care in the world was a spanna boy. He held a fancy looking shoota in one hand and a gleaming hammer in the other. The hammer looked new. As Snikbang! watched the spanna boy was looking at a large piece of machinery. He prodded it with his foot, licked it, had  a think about the taste then whacked it three times with his hammer.

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

What the zog?! Before Snikbang could get up to go smack the spanna boy with his own hammer he heard another commotion coming from his axe hand side. He heard whooping and something else, a ululating rumble of sound that echoed off the pipes creating a sound like nervous thunder. Then a group of odd looking lads burst out into the open. Madboys! They were shaking their fists at the sky and hollering at some unseen foe, only stopping to bend over and let rip with some of the loudest flatulation he'd ever heard towards the 'oomies' outpost.

The 'oomies! Snikbang! looked over towards where the lights were blinking. He could hear something else, the ring of booted feet on walkways. Squinting he made out a bunch of the smaller beakie type 'oomies taking up firing positions and aiming out towards the madboys and the spanna boy with the hammer. 
"Zog me." grumbled Snikbang! That had torn it. He stood up and whacked his choppa on a nearby pipe, sounding the charge order. His lads emerged from cover and as one they began a march towards the 'oomie's position. He'd have to do it the old orky way. 

Right, following on from my review of Shadow Wars we decided to get a few games in, we were requested to do a write up for it so here we go!

I've already played one game (a four way battle with Genestealer Cult Orks and Chaos Marines that I had managed to prevail in with only a head wound to my Sergeant. (causing him to suffer from frenzy). The promethium I had gained (just one poxy barrel) had enabled me to get a Heavy Bolter for my Scout Gunner. One of my bolter scouts had been chosen to advance in the last game and had got the skill Hipshooter, he could run and shoot - albeit with a minus 1 to hit.

Lee on the other hand, had a fresh mob. Now, unlike Necromunda there do not appear to be any rules for underdogs, meaning that if a fresh kill team goes up against a more advanced one they will be at a major disadvantage and won't even get a bonus to experience at the end. Time will tell if this proves to be a problem but with no experience per se in the game anyway it seems that it will be something that is difficult to resolve.

So, Roll Call! (It's worth noting that Lee in typical Lee fashion had names and behaviours for ALL his Orks before the game started whilst I was still referring to Bolter dude with Helmet and Heavy Bolter guy. Suitably shamed I have now named all my Kill Team members.

Scout Squad Apollyon:

• Sgt Apollyon (Head Wound - Frenzy)
• Scout Trooper Orosian - Bolter
• Scout Trooper Nakius - Bolter - Hipshooter
• Scout Trooper Aeryius - Sniper Rifle - Toxic Rounds and Reload
• Scout Trooper Caeon - Sniper Rifle - Reload
• Scout Gunner Nikaeon - Heavy Bolter

The Sneaky Boom Bangs! (all armed with a shiv and squighide armour 6+)

• Nob Snikbang! (The exclamation mark is important, he insists on it) - big choppa, stikk bomb and kombi-shoota
• Klank, Spanna boy - slugga and big shoota
• 4 Blood Axe Boys all armed with a slugga and choppa - Stretch, Skrabble, Whao and Steddy Baz
• 4 Yoofs all armed with a slugga and choppa - Wobblz, Hatz, Squelch and Happy Zug

We rolled for sides, Lee won and chose his and got first turn, we were just playing a straight up fight so it would be till one team bottled. We completely forgot to roll on the conditions table though. Lee deployed right at the front of his deployment zone, a very agressive stance from the greenskins. I on the other hand, set up my Snipers and Heavy Bolter in elevated positions and the remainder of my Scouts in the bunker. Perfect tactical positioning. The only thing I would need to be careful of was Sgt Apollyon charging off into trouble due to his frenzy.

Orks are made for twatting stuff up close so that was my plan hence deploying forward. I had plenty of boys so made sure my yoofs were front and centre. Snikbang and one of his lads set up on the right flank whilst the rest of the boyz made themselves conspicuous.

Orks Turn 1:

I got to go first so did the only sensible thing and ran everyone forward. Most went straight for cover and Snikbang! sneakily sidled over to hunker down behind some cargo containers, whistling nonchalantly as he went.

Scouts Turn 1:

There was no reason at all for my Scouts to move. Well out of charge range I didn't need to worry about my Sergeant's frenzy either. Therefore I stood my ground and opened fire:

Orosius fired at one of Lee's Yoofs - Happy Zug, happy he might be but he was pinned by fire, though I failed to wound.

Nakius took down Stretch with his bolter but promptly ran out of ammo. That was a problem, it was early in the game and he had no reload or other weapons. Worse still, he was my guy with Hipshooter, though I had no plans to run round the battlefield at present. Still the Ork falling to the ground face down was enough to unnerve Lee's Spanner Boy Klank and the cowardly Greenskin promptly scarpered to the nearest cover. Steddy Baz stuck around though, seemingly unbothered by his fellow's fate. Lee had named his Orks well it seemed.

Aeryius sighted down his Sniper Rifle and took down Wobbles, the Ork slumping to the floor in a pool of blood. Down but not out. Sgt Apollyon and Nikaeon went into Overwatch, waiting for a target to present itself.

Orks Turn 2:

Klank had scarpered like a right git but it didn't take long for him to come back to his senses. Actually, he had dropped his poncy new hammer and was going back to retrieve it. Squelch, dancing to and fro, hopping from foot to foot noticed that the open door of the Ferratonic Furnace looked like a porta-drops and dashed in to relieve himself. So as to make thing a bit interesting we decided that this was potentially hazardous so decided to roll for what happened, agreeing on a table of events prior to rolling the dice.

• 1: Falls in - removed from game
• 2-3: Constipated - roll next turn
• 4+: Took a wrong turn and has appeared on top of the Furnace and able to move normally. This would save him a good deal of movement.

(I readily agreed to this, these sort of things add so much fun to games and are one of the reasons that Lee and I have remained such firm adversaries over the years. Lee plays Ork very well (I'm not an Ork person) and already his Kill Team was proving full of character.)

Rolling turned up a six! A confused Squelch appeared on top of the furnace. Still needing to go he wondered around looking for another spot to relieve himself which coincidentally took him towards the Scout's positions.

Snikbang!poked his head out from around the side of the corner and promptly ducked back again as five heavy bolter shots impacted on the side of his cover, Nikaeon's overwatch had failed to hit him, phew. Waiting for a moment to make sure no further fire was coming his way Snikbang! let rip with his kombi-shoota. Two sustained fire dice gave him enough shots to pin Nikaeon behind cover but not much else.

This wasn't the only patient scout, Apollyon pinned Whap who thought he was in more cover than he turned out to be. That's two Orks on the floor but more still mobile.

Scout turn 2:

With my only Objective being to get rid of Lee I still had no reason to move. Sadly this meant Lee was rather running a gauntlet. I couldn't feel too sorry for him though, sympathy for the Xenos is heresy.

Apollyon took careful aim and pinned Waap again before Orosian took him Out Of Action with disciplined Bolter Fire. Lee would be taking Bottle Tests from here on.

Caeon managed to pin Boss Snikbag! This was a good thing, the large Ork posed quite a threat. I'd rather he was down but stalling him flat on his back was better than nothing.

Aeryius spotted Squelch on top of the walkway in the gloom. A clear shot, a quick exhale as he pulled the trigger and Squelch was down, stumbling from the walkway and nearly landing on Hatz below. Thankfully Hatz dodged just in time, though he scarpered anyway. Squlech on the other hand was immensely fortunate and landed on his head. Suffering only one wound which Lee managed to save on a six no less! Aeryius had hit on a six but thankfully passed his ammo test.

Nikaeon recovered from being Pinned, he couldn't go into Overwatch, I'd have to hope he could escape Lee's attention for a turn. Nakius meanwhile glared impotently through the sights of his empty bolter.

Ork Turn 3:

Bottle tests on leadership seven. Passed this turn, the muffled swearing coming from the direction of Snikbang! enough to convince the boys to stay in the fight. Hatz wasn't having any of it though and failed to rally from last turn and ran into cover.

Klank, as well as testing his new hammer on any and every solid surface had also brought along his newly kustomised big shoota. He opened up on Orosian but in typically Orky fashion missed with all of his shots.

The madboy yoofs were rather enjoying writhing on the ground so stayed there but none of the boys was squishy so they stuck around. Boss Snikbang! got up to show the lads what they should be doing.



Scouts Turn 4:

Nikaeon went back on Overwatch, that Boss was bound to make a break for it at some point and the Heavy Bolter was my best chance of putting him down for good. Apollyon lead by example and took out Shank with a perfect Bolt Pistol Shot.  Thus far his frenzy hadn't been a problem though it must be noted we're assuming that they were M4 where they are actually M5! Ridiculous!

Aryius scored a flesh wound on Klank, passing another Ammo test in the process.

Ork Turn 4:

Cowardly lot them beakies, not that any of them had them beakie helmets. What a swoz. The boys passed their bottle test and stayed in the fight for another turn. Snikbang! burst from cover, pegging it towards the tower opposite that would lead to the entrenched snipers and Nikaeon. He was forced to run a gauntlet of overwatch fire, Nikaeon having to pass an initiative test in order to overcome his surprise at Snikbang!'s sudden appearance and succeeding. Even with a -2 to hit he scored a wound. Snikbang! had two to begin with so didn't get knocked down though he skidded into cover and stayed there, pinned for the rest of the turn.

Steady Baz had methodically worked his way to the top of the centre section walkway, not bothered by all the bullets and bolts whizzing by his head. He took a shot at the scout with the fanciest looking armour, pinning Sgt Apollyon. Steady Baz passed his ammo check, that Stormboy training serving him well with a well oiled and maintainted slugga.

Despite this most of my Orks were doing nothing due to being pinned or hurt. Wobblz went out of action with a large burst of flatulence before lying still. His memory lingering as a green cloud that followed the breeze coming from the nearby ventilation ducts. Squelch's desperate need overcame his common sense and he recovered to a flesh wound as he looked around for that secluded spot where he could do his business in peace.

Scout Turn 5:

The game was turning in the Scout's favour but Lee still had a few Orks that could cause me problems. Apollyon passed his initiative test to recover from Pinning early but rushed his shot at Happy Zug and missed. I was actually lucky that Apollyon had been pinned or the Frenzy would have made him charge, a lucky escape for myself and the Yoof.

Zug's luck ran out though as Orosian put him down though with another impressive display of shooting. He had an ammo check but unlike Nakius passed it no problem. Nakius was probably hoping for the Orks to get close enough so he could use his bolter as a club, Reloads were high on my shopping list after this game.

Speaking of Ammo Checks Aeryius took Hatz Out of Action with yet another 6 to hit, passing a third Ammo Roll in a row (on an 11 no less). Sniper elite indeed!

Not to be outdone Caeon downed Klank, Nikaeon went back on Overwatch with his Heavy Bolter in an end to a decisive turn for the Scouts. Very few Orks were left standing now.

Ork Turn 6:

"Wots wrong with ya?! You Orks or is ya grots? Get stuck in!" To the boys credit, or sheer lack of common sense, they didn't bottle again.

Unfortunately there were not many Orks who could actually affect what was happening. Steady Baz maintained his cool and shot at Orosian but missed. That was it, everyone else was pinned or down and none of them snapped out of it in the recovery phase.

Scout turn 6:

Sadly the only target for the Scouts on top of the Bunker was the prone form of Happy Zug, still the Codex Astartes says never give a sucker an even break (or something like that) and Apollyon and Orosian dutifully riddled the greenskins body with boltershells. Annoyingly though they couldn't do anymore than score another Down result.

Therefore it was up to Aeryius to show them how it was done yet again, Steady Baz was his target this time with yet another hit roll of 6. A toxic round took Baz out of the game and this time round I finally failed an ammo check, on a double 1 no less! Had it been one of those shoddy Ork weapons it would have exploded, Imperial equipment is far from shoddy though and Aeryius just used his reload.

This just left Nikaeon and Caeon, both of whom went on Overwatch.

Orks turn 7:

The lads, all absorbed in their own suffering did not notice that they really should make a run for it and stayed on for yet another turn.

Squelch had caught sight of the bunker and moved towards it, there had to be a lav in there somewhere! He took a shot at the occupants but missed. He was a bit exposed.

Over on the left Boss Snikbang! had recovered and made a run towards the scouts but was cut down by Nikaeon's heavy bolter. Back at camp the number of scouts who had fired at Snikbang grew by lots in the re-telling (the highest number any Ork knows how to count to).

All that writhing was hard work and both Klank and Stretch decided they had better things to be doing and went Out of Action.

Scout turn 7:

Much as I hate to say it Squelch was the only available target. For my entire Team. It was literally a shooting gallery. Still, Hate the Alien, Kill the Alien and all that. My Scout's Drill Instructors had clearly drummed the Codex into them well as my Kill Team opened up on Squelch.

First Nikaeon downed him with a burst of heavy bolter fire. Apollyon did the same with his bolt pistol. Caeon did the same, as did Orosian, Aeryius inconceivably once again hit on a 6 passing his ammo check. Even with Toxic Rounds he couldn't take Squlech (or what was left of him) out of action. Poor Squelch.

Lee gamely passed another Bottle check but had no Orks standing. At the end of the Turn Boss Snikbang! went out of action and Lee conceded, with only two downed Yoofs left on the battlefield.

Post game action.

Kill team Apollyon had suffered zero injuries, Lee, not so lucky.

Both Lee's Orks left on the battledfield went OOA. Worse was to come as Squelch and Whap were captured (better than dead I suppose)

See, what happened with Squelch was that he'd managed to crawl into the sewer and float away from the battle. Later he was seen floating amongst the effluent but after calling him a few times Squelch had refused to stop floating face down so the boys left him to it. He eventually got caught in a grate that prevents large bodies being sucked into the waste purification facility and was picked up by a patrol.

Steady Baz suffered a head wound. Frenzy for him.
Happy Zug would miss the next game and now hated Orosian
Strech Scored against the Odds! He gained Infiltrate which was very handy (Lee was using the Blood Axe Skill table.)

Sadly none of Lee's other Orks were eligible for advancement. (Yoofs only get mission completed marks.)

The Scouts scored two promethium and I just had to choose Aeryius to advance. Four hits on a six multiple notches on his rifle? There could be no other. He picked up the Hipshooter skill, a Sniper Rifle isn't a heavy weapon so he could now run and gun! Albeit at a minus 1 to hit.

In the Re-arm phase Lee replaced one of his Orks, I chose to buy reloads and Photovisors. The reloads were a necessity the way I was rolling and the Photovisors would reduce the enemies cover by 1.

Our next game was already decided! A Rescue mission!

We'll be back soon, will Lee manage to rescue Squelch and Whap? Does he really want to? (They were a bit crap) Find out in the next game report, coming soon!

Hobby Diary 06/11/2016

Lee:

Hobby wise this hasn't been a particularly eventful week. It has mostly comprised preparing projects for the rest of the month and re-jiggling my projects. It is irritating when you have a plan but new things shove the items you had wanted to get done out of the way. 

Preparation wise this week I constructed a 500pt Scourge fleet. I enjoyed putting these models together. Even though all the Scourge ships have the same basic hull the additional parts really do set them apart, at least as far as the frigates are concerned. My fleet is mostly frigates organised into Groups that have specific purposes with a light cruiser along to provide a bit of heavier firepower. Now that I have had a chance to read through the fleet list it is easier to recognise the ships as their individual classes instead of a succession of weirdly shaped vessels. I'll discuss my fleet when Allan and I get our first game in, I don't want to tip him off to my plan.

I intend to spray all these ships metal with silver along the tips of the protrusions. Over this I will apply washes. Then once these are dry I will pick out the detail traditionally. I will be paying particular attention to the unique parts of each ship so I can easily identify them on the board. Rather than go for the usual purple and greens that the display fleet are painted I will be looking at sea creatures for inspiration.

I was disappointed that I did not find Khalida during a search of my carry cases but determined to complete a Warhammer Fantasy model this month I chose a Tomb King instead, with a Scarab Swarm base as an optimistic hanger on that may also get done at the same time. This is going to follow the same method as the Liche Priest from last month, paint the gold, skin and bandages then brown wash the lot and then highlight and pick out the details.

The thing I made the most progress on this month was my Sicaran. As a main Word Bearer unit this is painted red but with charcoal black sections echoing the shoulder pads of my Astartes. I am making good progress so far and hope to be done by the end of next week though you know how it is with plans and reality matching up.

The first project that looks like it will be completed this month is my random Emperor's Children. The Emperor's Children for 40K are one of my oldest armies and I have quite a bit painted. This model found its way to the window sill when I was unpacking and was left behind so that when I started to paint it was to hand. Wanting to expand on this army rather than junk it I have painted this Marine as a test bed for my newer scheme. The main change is changing the banding from the same blue as the weapons to green. I think it works and will make sure that any new or touched up units match this guy. As it stands there are just a couple of details to finish and then to base and he is done.

As far as November's plan goes below are the changes. 

Definite

Word Bearers Sicaran

Emperor's Children Marine

Queen Khalida Tomb King

Planned

Scourge ships

Squats

Warrior Nation Braves

Khalida is out and the Tomb King is in and the Squats have been relegated to the sidelines to make room for five Warrior Nation Braves for Wild West Exodus. I have all the paints I need now to do justice to their skin so these will be my test bed. I had intended only to paint one but there is a new hobby challenge beginning on the Wild West Exodus Facebook groups and the minimum requirement for month one is five Hired Hands. Whether they get completed or not really depends on how long the Sicaran takes but if I keep up the pace I have set thus far then I should meet my deadline.

AL:

Like Lee, i have had a pretty quiet week comparatively after last week's mad rush. It's mostly been back to watching Star Trek Voyager while building cultists. I did get my UCM fleet undercoated though, ready for the airbrush, i've undercoated them black and i'll drybrush them with grey and white in an attempt to pre-highlight them before I give them the base coat. It's all a bit experimental at this stage. Still, i'm looking forward to getting them done and of all things, Call of Duty Infinite Warfare has been a major influence with the ships in that game being rather well realised and giving me a few ideas for my UCM. 

So like I said, in the meantime i've been adding to the ranks of the Cultists, i've actually finished all my Overkill sprues and though I have a box of neophytes (which are to be assembled with all the options and intermixed with my normal squads, it's been the Cadians that i have been working on this week. 

So one of the main things i have realised of late is that the Hybrids are FAR superior to the Cadian models. OK there are ten years between them but you can see every single one of those years when comparing kits. The Cadians are crude, oddly proportioned with massive mouldlines (thank the Emperor - Beloved by all - for the mould line remover tool) and just don't go that well together. Well overdue an upgrade i would say! After spending as much time cleaning the model as it took to assemble a dozen cultists I started to assemble them. I wanted to try to improve the way they looked a bit and in all honesty the removal of Aquilas and addition of cult bits and heads only goes so far with that. I'll be painting them quite drab so that they don't stand out too much compared to the much more interesting cultist models.

I managed to get three complete squads of ten and with a bit of creative hacking have tried to vary the models up a bit with backpacks and the like though i have to confess i am not absolutely happy with them, it doesn't help that the superior Command kit has a lot of options that the cultists just CAN'T use like powerfist and plasma and melta guns. This variety would have improved the models considerably. Stupid Codex. 

Oh well, never mind, I moved onto the heavy weapon squads, a little bitz order a few weeks ago meant I was in a position to utilise more of the heavy weapons than normal and indeed I actually seem to have all options available which is handy. I do like getting the most out of my kits. The main place I had to be creative was with the missile launchers, they needed a bit of cutting to make them a bit shorter so they look like they could be fired without the need of the tripod. I think i've just about managed that. 

I've also been creative with the hybrid bits. I used Overkill models to utilise as many bits of the sprues as possible and have turned basic Acolytes to make Metamamorphs and a standard bearer. Though the models needed a fair bit of cutting, the conversion is actually fairly simple and I think i have got away with it. 

So that's the cult mostly done! The tanks are yet to do and another box of Neophytes, and i have a commissar from the start collecting box to get creative with - probably double up as another Primus. Oh, and the rest of the Cadian Command, OK the cult is not quite as done as I thought, good thing that we are only on season 3 of Voyager. 

I did also construct a glass cabinet to display my Star Wars Armada fleets, that counts as hobby right? 

Still, i'm casting my mind to other things, (i'm like a hobby magpie) and whilst I try to resist the lure of the wavering post Trump election dollar making a Kickstarter very tempting i'm thinking about what is next. I really want to finish those three busts i started, it shouldn't take too long, a couple of evening sessions maybe, in between i can do my UCM and 30k Ultramarines. As you will see from the picture i have the ventilated spraying station all set up so next time I hope to have much more than just construction done... 

Hobby Diary 23/10/2016

AL:

So this week I aimed to continue what I had begun (i'm sick of having half painted models) before moving onto something else. In this case its three busts from Relic,the Fantasy Flight Board Game. I finished the Callidus first, there wasn't much to do the kit on the back needed a quick bit of painting on the displays and the Coal Black needed toning down a bit which was achieved with some Chaos Black and Lahmian Medium.

A gloss varnish was absolutely essential next. This was a gaming piece and would be handled a lot. I discovered Vallejo varnishes a while ago and haven't looked back since. After the gloss had dried i used matt, the synth skin was looking a bit shiny for my liking. The Matt still has a lustre to it, but its not as shiny as the gloss. I did go back over the eye lenses with gloss, that looks nice. Shiny.

So Callidus done, it was back to the Ratling. First things first, I know what I said last week but I wanted to bring the face out a little, so I added some Cadian Flesh to the mix, another bit of ruddy glaze on the features and another highlight and i'm calling it done.

Next was a bit of camo on the vest, I already had a dark olive colour so some Coat D'Arms Dark Leather brown and P3 Ordic Olive finished the scheme, Nowhere as near as nice as I would have liked but good enough, an ink wash would hide a multitude of sins. The sleeves were recoated and highlighted, the pouches and bags were painted brown with a highlight-cum-weathering of that same brown and Cadian Flesh.

At this stage it's not far off done but I wanted to move onto the Ultramarine. Due to the large size of this and buoyed by my success with the leather look on the Ratling's pouches i decided to push my luck and experiment somewhat with texture on the Ultramarine. I laid a few washes of Gulliman Blue over the Prussian Blue armour and some Mephiston Red Mixed with Vallejo Scaly Green on the helmet. I then started building the blue back up with Prussian blue but used a stippling effect to try to get some texture into the armour, Tinny Tin and Brassy Brass were used on the shoulder pad edges.
The next couple of days I really wasn't up to painting, got home very late and settled for assembly in front of the telly.

I had ordered some stuff from Triple Helix and although I was missing an upgrade sprue from the Armoured Claw box I started assembling some Cadian neophyte hybrids. I then lost a kneeling set of legs so jumped onto Bitz Box to grab a spare and a few bits that would enable me to build a few of the other heavy weapons in the box, I was very impressed as I ordered on a Thursday evening and had them by Saturday.

Taking off the Imperial eagles was easy enough with a knife and the Citadel Mould line Remover tool, although outrageously expensive does its job superbly. I'm glad I forked out for it. I'm working on a colour scheme in my head for them, something pretty drab to contrast with the brighter proper hybrids i think, maybe a grey urban camo

Speaking of proper hybrids  my hobby week in general took a big swing towards the assembly way of things as I got stuck into my mass of Genestealer Cult sprues. As I assembled them I was impressed all over again with the quality of the Overkill models which is easily the equal of the miniatures in the separate kits. In particular I was impressed by the Aberrants which have actually been designed to fit no matter which arms you use with which body. Given that there are only two designs of Aberrant and they are not easily convertible this allows me a tiny bit more variety in my unit.

Elsewhere I used the Acolyte box to build all the heavy weapons options. Oddly the body sections of the acolytes have to be matched up, perhaps to allow for the right number of arms on either side. The Demolition Charges in particular look great as does the Rocksaw. I was left with a large number of bits left over on the sprue and decided to use some Metamorph bits on the overkill models. A bit of cutting here and there and I had a unit in no time. And I still have bits left over to use, this is good as as great as the Overkill models are, multiple sets will have quite a few of the same models knocking about,.

Actually a quick word about the myriad of bits on the Cult sprues, we all know that GW prices have gone up and squads are much more expensive than they used to be but one look at the Neophyte sprue compared to the Cadian one kind of illustrated why. Take a look at the Cadian sprue, produced quite some time ago now,

and compare it with the cultist one.

Quite a difference, I cant wait for GW to revisit some of these older kits.

So yes, mostly getting the cult together this week. Still, I have at least enough for a Killteam game and a few more evenings assembly should see a decent sized force, especially when I get the tanks built.

Prospero is also on the horizon and though you can rest assured that the Conclave will be reviewing that in due course, I am more excited about getting my mitts on some MkIII armour, I popped in to Wayland Southend to grab some nice deep Vallejo blues and will be cracking on with the XIII legion very soon. With my new airbrush booth now all I need to do is decide how im going to do them! I think in order to honour (Courage and Honour always) our commitment to do something for our Heresy armies each month i'm going to grab a character from the Calth box set and try to use that to get my scheme

sorted. I have spares should it all go horribly wrong.

Now, where is that Airbrush?

Lee:

Given the buzz around the Horus Heresy with the Burning of Prospero set coming out this week all my hobby time these past seven days has been devoted to my first five Ashen Circle marines and I am 85% done. I have some detail work to do on the various pieces of parchment attached to their plate and some tidying to do but after that I just need to highlight the armour and I am done.

I've not been able to spend as much time on each model as I did with Zardu Layak but that's fine, if I want to get things painted they cannot all be to that level. I'm happy with how they have turned out though I need to dig out one of my regular Word Bearers that is completed as I think the silver trim was a lot darker than it has turned out on these. There isn't much to go over if that is the case so shouldn't prevent me from completing these before next week.

Even though I shall be drowning in more plastic Heresy miniatures by the end of the week I have already decided that my next Heresy model to finish will be my Sicaran. I want to paint something red and this will be good practise with my airbrush. It was a close run thing choosing though, I have also been looking at the colours of Legio Mortis and their knightly allies.

I have been tempted by including a unit of Thousand Sons to accompany Ahriman as he isn't good for much else than representing himself. Despite them also being red I would paint them in the style that Forge World adopted by painting them metal then airbrushing them clear red with metal to highlight. Other than that the rest of the models will be folded into my Word Bearers which bumps up my force considerably. Those Sisters of Silence and Custodes will be enjoyable to paint as I do like painting gold.

As well as this I want to crack on with some Scourge ships as both Allen and I will be receiving our Dropfleet Commander pledges on Tuesday. Quite a few people in the office have already started building their fleets from our retail stock so it will be good to start catching up. Having a battleship for every faction I already outgun everyone else.

I notice that Allen has been putting a lot of Genetealer cultists together which leads me to want to put together an obscure army of my own so will be digging out some Squats. I will most likely proxy them but will need to give some thought to what codex to use.

So below is how November is looking painting wise.

Definite

Word Bearers Sicaran

Emperor's Children Marine

Queen Khalida

Planned

Scourge ships

Squats

I stuck Khalida in there as I had been planning to paint her since before we moved as I really want to make progress on an 8th edition army. Maybe next month I will assemble a unit to be painted a rank at a time? Overall it is a lot to be getting on with but all three of my definite choices are single models so here's hoping. 

Lee.

Hobby diary 16/10/16

Lee:

I’ve been hobbying quite a bit lately. Now I am fully settled in my new house the airbrush is permanently set up in the Lee room. All I can use it for right now is base coating but I have a few things I want to try in the future. Clear coating metals, gradients, shading. I have projects lined up aplenty.

Since unpacking everything I have successfully completed a couple of single miniatures. The first was the Deathwatch Watchmaster. As far as 40K goes I have never been much of a loyalist, preferring to side with Chaos or the Xeno but there is an allure to having a small elite force of Space Marines that do not require many units to ally with my Dark Angels or Space Wolves (didn’t I just say I don’t much go for the Imperium?).

The Watchmaster is a lovely model. The sculpting is superb and the pose stoic. I used a base from Secret Weapon to mount him on, a 32mm Ruined Temple base. This design looks good without being covered in too much detail. I wanted the model to be the focus for the eye. I painted it with a base of charadon granite dry brushed with shadow grey then over that a drybrush of Incubi Darkness and a final highlight drybrush of Sybarite Green. The recessed patterns were painted gold. This looks like an alien temple with colours that complement the predominantly black miniature.

My Watchmaster is a Space Wolf Grey Hunter. He has had his time as an impetuous Blood Claw and is on his way to becoming a Long Fang. He still has the passion of the hunt but is considered in his approach, best utilising the varied skills of his brothers to eliminate the Xenos.

The second model I completed was Watch Captain Artemis from Death Masque. He was painted similarly to my Watchmaster and I have been keeping a log of my paints (a new thing for me) so I can paint the rest of the Deathwatch models I have the same when I come back to them. The next model I will be painting is the Corvus Blackstar, a beautifully sleek craft which being mostly black should not take too long to paint once I begin.

The third miniature I have painted was a Tomb Kings Liche Priest. When I got wind that the Tomb Kings were being discontinued I immediately bought up what I could find. This was the Tomb Priest, a couple of Sphinxes and a couple of boxes of Sepulchral Stalkers. The Liche Priest is painted similarly to the units I have already painted for my Tomb Kings force except for the skin as none of my models currently have any. Rather than do it pale as the official miniature is painted I went for a darker tone similar to how real mummies look. I’m quite pleased with the result. I need to put together a 1,000-point force to guide what I paint next after Queen Khalida but the only units I do not have are a Bone Giant and most of the special characters.

These are just the tip of the lead pile though. I still have 30 Deathwing Terminators part painted on my table. I am half way through a random Emperor’s Children model and though I am still awaiting my Dropfleet Commander pledge to arrive Hawk gave me some miniatures to keep me busy. On top of that Allen wants us to paint a unit of our Horus Heresy armies a month.

We are halfway through the month at the time of writing but rather than pick an easy choice like a single character I have gone for five of the Ashen Circle. These guys are one of the Word Bearers’ unique units. They are jump pack infantry whose purpose is to eradicate enemy culture, learning and faith. On the battlefield, they would hunt down those that inspired hope and courage in the enemy force and burn them to ashes then after the battle do the same to the libraries and heretical churches of the foe. Now turned to Chaos they do the same with the heroes and truth of the Imperium.
The official models are painted in the slate grey of the old Word Bearer’s livery but my force has turned from the Emperor’s light already so they will have their post Istvaan livery. Rather than paint them red I will be painting them the same deep grey I painted Zardu Layak with the cthonian runes etched onto their armour glowing with internal heat. Each model is armed with a hand flamer and an axe rake. The hand flamers may only be strength 3 but that is a lot of templates. I have 20 of these models to paint in all so my full squads will be doing a lot of damage.

The Axe rake used by the Ashen Circle is a weapon not used by any other unit. It is a tool as much as a weapon being used to latch onto and haul down graven idols. In game, it is a +1 AP6 hand weapon that causes enemy units falling back to do so at -1”. Upgrade wise there isn’t much to change on the regular squad load out. I switched out one of the hand flamers for an inferno pistol for that extra punch and the axe rake on the champion for a power axe which I have represented with a mutation from the Chaos Space Marine Possessed sprue to show the Iconoclast is favoured.
As of the time of writing these models have received their base coat and I will be making a proper start on the detail at the next sitting. Having a think about next month I am tempted to name one of the units in Fall of Prospero as my choice but as I was looking for my Ashen circle earlier I came across my Sicaran and Deredeo Dreadnought so who knows.

AL:

Like Lee i have also moved home, albeit much more recently. The last thing I painted before I moved was this Necron Tomb Spider:

As you can see i'm going for a swampcron force and have a lot of ideas for the army. I have been using the Forgeworld Masterclass books and their wealth of information including using oil paints and floor polish to gain an aged and decrepit look. The model itself was sprayed with Halfords silver paint. Halfords do a very wide  range of shades and i'm not entirely sure i picked the right one but ill improvise. The whole model was then given a wash of a mix of black and burnt umber oil paints, liberally diluted with white spirit. Make sure that the area is suitably ventilated! the fumes are intense! The advantage of using oil paint is that you can manipulate the wash for a lot longer and a lot more easily while it dries. The disadvantage is that it takes ages to dry and reeks while it does so.

A quick drybrush of Boltgun Metal (yes i mostly still use old Citadel colours) and then another more carefully applied thicker burnt umber wash and it was done. Well the metal bits were. I had decided in advance i wanted a glossy dark green marble effect for the carapace to counteract the murky metal. This was achieved by using Vallejo Scaly Green mixed with a bit of black and then effectively producing a marble pattern adding VERY old Jade Green on top. After i was happy with the marble effect (more or less) i then used consecutive glazes of scaly green mixed with floor polish. This gives a lovely smooth glossy effect.

The swamp stuff itself was actually something of a challenge. i ended up using a mix of normal and static flock mixed with a lot of PVA glue and then gloss varnish once dried. I'm still not totally happy but it will do for now. Bigger models will use Spaghum moss that i use for my animals enclosures. Still, it's hard to say when ill get back to the swampcrons....

As GW have gone release crazy! Since i painted this Tomb Spider they have released Death Masque. (always fancied Harlequins so nabbed two boxes of that) and the Genestealer Cult which i had to have as well! I'm now drowning in armies, still mostly on sprue and with The Burning Of Prospero on the horizon this isn't going to change anytime soon as the XIII legion will soon be receiving all sorts of reinforcements!

So I have arranged with Lee that we will have to crack on with our Heresy armies and paint at least one thing a month. Problem is i haven't got anywhere near deciding on a colour scheme and i'm using the airbush, no way i'm manually painting all that. My painting desk is in the same room as my vast collection of exotic pets so i picked up a ventilated airbrush booth from Ebay and you can look forwards to seeing much more soon with any luck. Once i finally work out how i'm going to paint them. I have some catching up to do as Lee has already completed a few of his treacherous whoreson Word Bearers.

So as I have just moved and the vast majority of my stuff is still inaccessible or still on sprue i grabbed what was to hand to ease myself back into painting. In this case it was the busts from the Fantasy Flight game Relic. I only managed a couple of painting sessions this week, hope to improve on that in coming weeks.

First up was the Callidus, This was simplicity itself. Spray black (Halfords again) then highlight the black with P3 Coal Black, a black wash to tie it in a bit and repeat. The hair was Mephiston Red mixed with Scaly Green (I no longer darken bright colours with black) and then successive coats adding more Mephiston Red. The eyes were very thin layers of Scaly Green building up towards the bottom of the lens

I then turned my attention to the Ultramarine. I'd tried zenithal highlighting but it turns out that is difficult with spray cans. Ill revisit the technique with my airbrush. A simple coat of Vallejo Prussian Blue did the armour colour but then I noticed something interesting. The game has him as a Captain but he has the tactical symbol on his shoulder pad. Sod it, im doing him as a sergeant and red helm it shall be. I put him to one side for now though.

Picked up the ratling sniper instead. This is a nice model. Sadly i didn't make a note of what colours I used for all the model and I used too many to remember them all. I have recently downloaded an app that will help me with this, i'll be reviewing that separately at some point. You can likely work it out from the pics. I did use a tan brown rather than a flesh colour for the face though, I wanted it to look a bit more abhuman like, I used a wash of red around the nose and eyes to keep a little warmth in there though. He's almost finished and has actually turned out alright. I look forward to getting them all done. However, i have to accept the reality that i have actual ARMIES to assemble and paint so I think i'll have to treat myself to painting one of these busts inbetween units or something. The main thing was to get painting again and that mission has been accomplished. I'm looking forwards to getting a lot more done.

See you next week!

The Itty Bitty Tank Commitee

A few months back I went all Epic mad and ended up buying quite a lot of the stuff. It's not easy. Epic has officially been dead for a while and getting hold of miniatures is expensive, particularly the infantry. I lament selling my Epic armies; Eldar and Emperor's Children but apparently food is essential to life so whatever.

Out in the world there is a thing called Forumware. This is where fans of Epic who have way more talent than you or I have sculpted their own models that they cast up for personal use. This stuff is amazing. I have seen entire Horus Heresy Legions sculpted to resemble Forge World's current fare and painted to a standard worthy of full sized Golden Daemon standard. Unfortunately you cannot get hold of that stuff so I have been scrabbling around ebay and anywhere else I can think of to build up my collection.

Out of the blue I received a solicitation email from one of the small independent companies I have used for unique and interesting miniatures in the past. I can't tell you who they are as they went to great lengths not to publicise their awesome but obviously plagiarised designs. Still, if Games Workshop won't sell me the things I want, I'll get them elsewhere.

The kit is a metal resin hybrid. The resin parts are the main hull and track sections cast on a single sheet of resin. The resin is very good quality and a crisp cast with no air bubbles and plenty of detail. The plain sides of the resin parts were very smooth so I took a few minutes to rough up the texture to help the glue bond the parts together better. The metal parts are the hatches. These drop in parts could easily be replaced with turret and sponson alternative parts to create Razorbacks, Whirlwinds and Predators. Vindicators would need a different hull and probably could get away with no metal parts at all. There is a final piece which I will discuss further down but it is a solid piece of metal that is not meant to be part of the model.

Clean your resin in warm soapy water. Doesn't matter who the manufacturer is or the type of resin, give it a good soak and dry by wrapping it in and then dabbing it with kitchen roll. It is soft and absorbent and will get rid of that moisture. Moist. Why do people have a problem with that word?

The big solid bit of metal is actually a tool to help you construct your rhinos. There are no guide marks to allow your track sections to be applied correctly so that both sides fit in exactly the same space on either side of the main hull. Using this tool you can position all the parts so that when the glue is dry you have a perfect Rhino and not a lopsided mess.

Once you have completed your mini-me Rhinos you have an attractive and highly detailed miniature for your efforts. These Rhinos are slightly larger than the standard plastic Epic Rhinos but are a better fit scale wise for the Epic infantry.

I really like these models and wouldn't mind having a whole army of models in this design. Forge World announced that Adeptus Titanicus will herald the beginning of a new Epic system that will see tanks and infantry added after the Titan range has been fleshed out. The scale is different so whilst we will see more recent versions of standard template vehicles they will not be compatible with existing Epic collections so this is the only way to boost your forces with new shiny marks of tanks.

There has been sighted an Ultramarine specific version of these Rhinos on the horizon for those of us you can't sculpt for crap. Not a Ultra player myself so fingers crossed for something Dark Angels alongside these.

PS... they do Necrons too.

Lee