Hobby Update: A Return

It's been a pretty busy month.  Life is slowly starting to resume some pattern of normalcy.  I like what it seems to have in play and am looking forward to more.  As the pattern becomes more clear, hobby time has begun to appear in a regular fashion which feels pretty good.  Here is a sample of what that time has yielded.

One particular model has dominated my focus.  I have been working pretty diligently on the Nightbringer while rotating my attention between a few other units at the same time.  Rather than scrapping the current paint job and starting over, I decided to keep working on smoothing out the colors as they were.  The results have been generally positive, though I don't think I've had the same success as with the Manticore, nor do the colors run to as vibrant a finish as I'd like.  That said, it's a solid paint job in my opinion, and I'm ready to toss him on the field.

To do that, I had to build him a base.  I kicked off with a GF9 60mm magnetic base.  Because I plan to have a lot of other big models in the army, I wanted to make sure the Nightbringer would stand out.  It's a pretty easy effect to achieve in a Necron army where he towers over the basic troops, but on a disply board that has a Coven Throne and a bunch of other big creatures, the Nightbringer is so slight of build that he may not stand out as the centerpiece.  To save on glass material, I glued down a trio of 25mm bases on top of each other, then put the Nightbringer on those.  This bought me about an inch of extra height.  From there, it was a matter of adding rings of glass and building them up to the appropriate height and picking out a few things to add as detail around the base.

One of the aforementioned rotating projects includes a herd of old school/out of production metal Khorngors.  One of the reasons I like this project is that they're a return to painting some grittier fantasy models.  They'll get a little highlighting and a little shading, but they're line troops that are supposed to be dirty, with a bunch of natural browns, so I'm not sweating them too much.  They've been sitting in the queue for a while, but once they got in, they got done very quickly.  By far, the most effort consuming part was making the bases.  With everything else in the army, I just glued the model straight to the surface of the marble square.  The Khorngors were never going to be so simple.  The bottoms of the hooves are angled, providing minimal contact points, and the metal makes the models top heavy.  Basing them entailed snipping the metal strips for the slottabases into nubs, then drilling a pair of holes to sink the nubs into.  The end result is imperfect.  I have a few gaps to fill and hoofs that don't sit squarely.  Overall though, they seem to work just fine.

Finally, for those of you interested in nerdetry and sports at the same time, I recently completed a mock auction for a fantasy football league (the American version).  If you've only done a draft before, I'd encourage you to give an auction a chance.  It's extremely entertaining.  I'm pretty happy with my team:
QB: Michael Vick
RB: Lesean Mccoy
RB: Matt Forte
WR: Percy Harvin
WR: Marques Colston
FLX: Brandon Lloyd
TE: Cody Fleener
Def: NY Giants
K: Alex Henery

I have a pretty high ceiling for scoring from week to week.  My running backs should have consistently big numbers, and each of my receivers should yield solid weekly results, with chances for big plays.  My big worry is injury.  More than one of these guys has a history of getting hurt and my back ups don't inspire confidence.  I suppose that's the risk of paying to have nice things.  Resource management becomes tricky.  Finding value becomes important.  Patience gets put up against scarcity.  In a lot of ways, it's like many of my favorite games.  Except that I only get to play it once a year and don't know the result for four months.  Oh, and it's absolutely infuriating sometimes.

Hobby Accoplishments
-Finished the Nightbringer
-Finished the Khorngors
-Wrote down five of six missions for campaign project

Hobby Goals
-Get all six missions typed and finalized
-Finish the Death Company in the next two weeks
-Prep league format for two weeks from now
-Prime Banshees and Coven Throne
-Airbrush two coats on second Possessed squad

Hobby Update: In Which Things Come Together

One of the interesting things about HADD (Hobby Attention Deficit Disorder) is that, every once in a while, multiple projects all seem to finish at roughly the same time.  That can be in a number of different areas, whether assembly, painting, or converting.  In this case, it's over all of the above.

The Land Raider is "finished."  I guess I "need" to do a little clean up on the script on one side of a banner and do the second set of weapons so I can make it a Redeemer or a Crusader pattern, but I will proudly put it on the table and let other folks blow it up as fast as humanly possible.  Though it was definitely labor intensive, I ended up really enjoying painting it, and I'm even contemplating doing another one at this point, though I think that is a ways down the road if I ever get to it.

On the other hand, the Vargheists are finished.  Flat out.  I've never run into such a disconnect between models being good looking, yet utterly unenjoyable to work on.  I think they look great and I'm glad to have them in the army, but I'm done trying to improve the models themselves.

What I did really enjoy working on were the bases.  One of the guys at the local shop volunteered his bits box and I decided to go a little nuts.  The bases are built from various building sets, though it may have been mostly the basilica.  The plastic is quite thick, so it was a workout to get them into the shape of the bases.  In the end, definitely worth it as I think the look and the effect are very good.  They complement the models as well.  They'll be dark, but there are a few places I can add some splashes of color to make them more interesting.

I've also managed to assemble the Death Company models that I've acquired.  I'm planning on putting my tournament winnings towards the other half of the squad, and will likely try to score a Chaplain for them too.  The plan is to have nine painted in the traditional black color scheme, while the tenth will be in white.  A little deduction will tell you which one of these is not like the other.  The guy with no helmet will be in the opening stages of "the change."    He's got a little conversion done to him with a pair of ghoul hands.  His skin will be the same color as the Vargheists and his hair will be a light shade of gray.  I think he'll be quite striking.

The Word Bearers are also getting some love in anticipation of a coming codex release.  I busted out the airbrush and put on the initial basecoat of Mechrite Red, then began applying a 2:1 Red Gore/Scab Red mix in the traditional fashion.  Two of the models actually got coats of Chaos Black.  They'll end up being the Aspiring Champions for now, but we'll see what options are available in the new book.

Finally, I really enjoyed assembling a Chaos Manticore.  Of course, I'm not sure what I'm going to use it for.  I initially bought it for my Chaos Warriors army, but I'm debating using it as the first Daemon Prince for a 40K army that continues to occupy my interest.  I'm considering trying to do both, but I'm not sure the two color schemes will work.  Obviously, for the Warriors, red really is the only option.  For the Daemons, the scheme is going to be green.  Yes, they're complementary, but I'm worried about the beast looking like a giant Christmas tree.  Magnetizing the head will be easy enough, but I think I'm going to take some more time and consider the options before finalizing my decision.

Hobby Progress
-See above

Hobby Goals
-Get all the basing done for the Blood Wing
-Get the basecoating done on the Possessed

-Time allowing for it, work on the Chaos Dragon

Hobby Update and Fantasy 40K

Work continues apace on the Land Raider.  At this point, I've advanced to the stage of my process in which I go section by section over the vehicle to ensure each one looks the way I want it.  This could be clean up, detail work, highlighting, or whatever.  I kicked off this afternoon with the assault ramp.  While that may be a very small section, I like to take my time and make sure there doesn't have to be any follow up.  Additionally, it means I'm free to really dig into the details, such as each of the individual feathers.

At the same time, sometimes it's good to have something else interesting going to break up the monotony.  Or I have ADD, which might be more likely.  I banged out a single out of production Khorngor as the test scheme for the rest of the unit.  I'd forgotten how easy it is to paint single rank and file models.  Or maybe it seems that way after the long odyssey that is the Land Raider.

It's a pretty straightforward paint job.  Brown on the fur.  Silver on the armor.  Heavy wash for that grimy, dirty look.  Really, the interesting part was drilling holes into the marble tile for the base.  Because these models are the old metal design, they use slotted bases.  While I could just clip the metal parts off, the contact points with the base would be pretty flimsy.  Instead, I left the parts directly beneath the feet untouched and sank them into the base.  I used a little too much glue, resulting in a good bit of frosting, but he's sturdy, which is what I really want and I'll be on the lookout for this with the rest of the unit.


Finally, some friends and I got together for a goofy, little exercise.  We held a fantasy football style draft for all the units in 40K.  We had to take one HQ, Elite, Heavy Support, and Fast Attack, two Transports, and three troops and fit all of them into a 1500 point list.  I had the second overall pick and drafted the following:
1. Ork Boyz
2. Tau Crisis Suits
3. Mycetic Spore
4. Grey Knight Interceptors
5. Blood Angel Death Company
6. Eldar Jetbikes
7. Dark Eldar Haemonculus
8. GK Dreadknight
9. Blood Angel Rhino


I like my draft.  Honestly, I got pretty much everything I wanted and it works better together than you might think at first glance.  Can you spot the fun strategery?

Looking Back, Looking Forward: Hobby

Happy New Year!

The past 365 days were a pretty crazy ride, and I'm sure the approaching 366 will be the same.  As is often the case, I'd like to look back at what I've done in that time, and what I hope to accomplish in the upcoming year.

Hobbywise, it was a far less prolific year than the previous one.  I racked up 54 painting points, most of which were two point Terminators.  Some of that was related to how slowly I paint, but I think most of it was life getting in the way.  With a little more focus, I expect that number to improve.

I made progress on three distinct projects this year.  Unsurprisingly, they're the exact three I identified at the start of the year, the Blood Wing, the Widowmakers, and terrain.

Soon, they'll be tough to fit

I have two vehicles left to complete the initial Blood Wing list that I built.  I've had a lot of fun playing it, but I'm a little sad that I haven't finished it yet.  I do really love the parts that are done.  They look great in the display case and they really pop on the table.  It matches the vision I had the first time I looked at the Space Hulk board game.

Going forward, I have some ambitions and some decisions to make.  The one thing that I am dead set on is improving the bases that my guys occupy.  Currently they're standing on metallic circles and that really detracts from the armies appearance, let alone the concept of an army advancing into the depths of a space hulk.  I don't think I'm going to bother with resin bases.  I'll just stick with some upgrade kits and bits.  

What do you mean, 3+ save?

On the other end of the spectrum, with all the time and money in the world, I'd build a space hulk for them to take over.  Obviously not a whole one, but I'd like some rooms and halls and things like that so I can build a modular 6'x4' board.  I've seen a few of them out there and I think it'd be a lot of fun.

Somewhere in between lies what will actually happen.  I need to decide what, if anything, I'd add to the army.  At a baseline level, I want to add some simple things, like one more unit of terminators for weapons variety, a pair of Dreadnoughts made from a mix of the Furioso and Basic kits, and a standard pattern Land Raider. I've also talked about the possibility of a departure from Terminators in the form of some mobile elements.  I'd love to paint Lemartes and some Death Company.  They look fantastic and would expand my selection of bits to add to other things.  I'd play them as Skyclaws and a Wolf Priest.  I had planned on using Varghulfs as Thunderwolves, so I'm thrilled that the plastic Vargheist kits are coming out.  I might even go for some third party models to use as Caestus Assault Rams.  All this would enable me to play a multitude of lists at 2000 points.  But of course, that is the future, and we will see.

Already overflowing

Moving on to the square-base side, I started the year wanting to play something different from High Elves.  My Widowmakers Chaos Warrior army was, honestly, the path of least resistance.  It was already playable.  It was already painted.  I could've just stayed pat, but a local tourney gave me the impetus to step up my game. I bulked out my units, added a Daemon Prince, a fluffy Sorcerer, a Warshrine, and some Monstrous Infantry that I can use as anything.  On top of that I've re-based the whole army and it looks great if I do say so myself.

Between the improvements and how much I've enjoyed playing them in 8th edition, I've actually already made a commitment to expanding the force.  I have a few more basic, old school warriors to do touch ups on and base to bulk out the second unit to 24 models.  I plan on repainting five Knights so I can field a block of ten if I so choose.  I also acquired a box of 11 Khorngors that I plan on turning into Marauders with Wulfrik.  Finally, I have 3 Chaos Lords on the block.  One is mounted on a Dragon, another is on a Manticore, and the last is the one I will probably use the most, on foot.  While that's not a lot of models, it's a heck of a lot of points.

Thank you, Ard Boyz Prelims

As for things I'd like to add, it kinda swings the opposite way.  In a game of big blocks, I'm missing a big block.  My Warriors are fantastically killy, but taking each one off the board hurts.  Plonking down a block of forty or fifty Marauders would really make me smile.  Beyond that, if I get an opportunity, I'll add a Warpwolf Stalker to use as Throgg, convert a Lelith Hesperax to use as Valkia, and try to figure out how to shoehorn a second sorcerer into my fluff.

Almost there

For my terrain, I've found myself in a very interesting position.  After spending the year building up my terrain collection, I now live in an area where the stores provide it.  So unless I'm playing games at my house (which is unlikely unless my wife's attitude towards such changes), it will spend the next two years or so gathering dust.

I'm also a little disappointed.  I think the concept I used for my forest was a good one, but I used magnets that were just a little bit too small in the bases, and probably too many of them too.  I succeeded in making a forest that blocked line of sight, but all the trees needed to be placed just so to fit.  I may end up just putting them on 25mm and calling it a day.

Beyond that, I have a Fortress of Redemption that I've magnetized so it can be used as one big piece or two separate ones.  It needs a fair bit of paint, but hopefully it will be less intimidating when my new compressor arrives.  After that comes some hills and I should be good.

That's a lot of hobby expectations for someone who didn't finish a lot this past year, plus I have a ton of other projects that I'd love to embark on and a bunch of other random models that need paint.  I have about a thousand points of Air Assault Orks in process, a Word Bearers army to update, and a concept for theming my High Elf army.  It's way too much to paint in a year but we'll see what I can accomplish.

Hobby Goals for the New Year
-100 Painting Points.  I need to learn how to paint armies faster.  Some of that is not being such a perfectionist and some of that is learning more focus.
-Learn to use my airbrush.  The Fortress and a bunch of Marines are calling its name.
-Get the painting queue to zero.  There will always be things to paint, but I can be patient in buying new models, especially right now.
-Become comfortable with what all the standard painting terms are and how to do them.  All of my painting is done through experimentation, and I'd like to know, "This is this technique and here's how you achieve it."

2011 Final Hobby Stats:
Painting Points: 54
Models Built:  18

Tomorrow: Gaming Goals

40K Tournament Prep

I'm running a tournament on Saturday. Things are pretty much set. I have all the missions written, I have objectives, and I have enough players. I'm still very nervous. This is gonna be the first time I try running something like this, and while I know the guys and plenty of them have experience running tournaments, I still imagine things going so badly that the building somehow burns down and it's my fault. Hopefully things go well, and if not, well, I'm headed across the country in a month.

I got in a game on Tuesday. I played a Meeting Engagement against a Beastmen Doombull bus with a big Minotaur unit. To say the game was going to lack subtlety is an understatement. We deployed a little over the 12" apart. He had 3 units, including the Minotaurs with a Doombull and 2 Gorebulls, plus two units of Gors and a level 4 Shaman. Essentially that amounts to about 1500 points in the big deathstar, meaning that if I get that unit, I win. He went after one of my units with his big scary one, smashed it, but didn't go far enough to get out of my counter-charge arcs. I hit his flanks with 10 knights, a Lord, and about 20 Halberdiers. I lost a lot of guys from the Warrior unit, but the knights cleaned up and with a ranked unit of heavy cav in the flank, he was disrupted, so he wasn't steadfast, and at that point, the game was pretty much over. I still don't understand the Deathstar philosophy. I really believe that you need enough units on the board to be able to exercise a measure of control over it. I can see the value of points denial, but I really think over the course of a game, it's not that hard to get the whole thing if you have the counter for it.

Hobby Update

It always feels good to finish something, even if it’s later than you had originally planned. As you can see, I’ve put the final touches on my big bad wolves. I actually finished them a couple of days ago, but you know how it goes.

I’m mostly pleased with the way the unit turned out. The poses fit well together, thanks to the 40mm bases and a little bit of prior planning. The original boxed sets were each comprised of three models, so each one had an identical twin. While metal isn’t normally the easiest material to work with, an easy solution presented itself. With a couple clips to each of the arms, the axes could be flipped around to run the opposite direction. This cut down on the mono-pose element.

If I were going to do them over, one change I would likely make is to use a darker red on the armor. I like the idea of all the sigils and runes. It looks very stylized. However, with such a bright color, the eye tends to be drawn towards that, rather than the model as a whole or the faces.

Regardless, I have some models that I think are really nice and can now play a variety of roles in my army.

On a similar front, I primed the Chaos Dragon. Or rather, I should say I sprayed it. I wanted to try out a new black spray, and I figured this one would be fine if it turned out a little too glossy. Well it turned out a lot too glossy. I don’t think it’s ruined, but a different kind of model may well have been. My quest for a better black primer continues. We’ll see how the paint adheres, but I’m guessing I’ll need quite a few layers. Once I figure out what color I want, that process can begin.

Hobby Goals

-Pick a skin tone for the Dragon

-Paint the exterior of Drop Pod 2

-Start assembling supplies to pack things away

Hobby Accomplishments

-Finished the Wargs

-Primed the Dragon (sort of)

-I think I have the missions nailed down for a September tournament

Hobby Update

It’s been an interesting couple weeks as far as my hobby. To begin with, I am closing the gap on finishing the Wargs. I know I’ve talked about them getting done, but I’m down to the last one, so hopefully the next post is the full unit, painted and photographed in whatever makeshift light box I spontaneously assemble.

I also randomly participated in my local ‘Ard Boyz tournament. I showed up at my FLGS hoping there would be an extra random table open and one or two other Fantasy guys would show up. Well, it worked out better than expected. Due to a lack of publicity/local interest/whatever, two other people showed up for the tourney. I threw my own hat in the ring, figuring I wouldn’t mind partaking in the prize support. I took the first round bye, since only one fantasy guy showed up. I wanted to make sure he got a game in, though I forgot to print out a list, so I ran one of the older lists that I’m now less than fond of. When I matched that up against Dwarfs, albeit not even the nastiest of lists, it didn’t end up spelling much of a game for him unfortunately.

Rolling back to 40K, I ended up with sixty bucks in prize support which I promptly spent on an entirely different system. Actually, I spent it on one fantasy system to convert and play with a different fantasy system if you want to be really technical. I have thought about converting a Fell Beast into a Chaos Dragon for a while now. The model comes with two heads, so with a little bit of green stuff work and some extra bits, I thought I could turn out something reasonably impressive. The other options were the new Dark Elf Dragon or the Chaos Manticore, but they didn’t have the latter, and the former is sweet, but I can probably talk myself into getting it later, plus it wouldn’t dare to try and convert a second head.

So this is how it turned out:

I greenstuffed the second neck underneath the first so I could pin one in the normal position, then pin the other to the first and to the body. Then I filled in around it.

I got a chain from Michael’s to wrap around the neck. This will provide a place for a pendant of some kind for a visual focal point, while also covering some of the larger greenstuff patches.

I did my standard scenic base with the flying stand, but I flipped the stand upside down, sawed off the tip and replaced it with a magnet to make transport not just easier, but plausible.

Hobby Goals

-One last Warg

-Continue reading Caledor

-Resume work on the second Drop Pod

-Prime the Blood Wing Land Raider

Hobby Progress

-Finished most of the Wargs

-Bothered showing up at the local 'Ard Boyz and got a prize for it

-Converted a Nazgul on a Winged Fellbeast into a Chaos Dragon

Tournament Post #2, Gaming Side

For the weeks leading up over the tournament, I had spent a decent portion of my unengaged free time thinking about what I was going to bring to the tournament. I wouldn’t say agonizing because I was on vacation for a bit and I spend about two hours a day commuting. I had a lot of time that I could have been thinking about lists because it was just the easiest thing to do. I thought about running a pretty hefty cavalry block, because they really scare folks, but I decided I wanted more board control. I sacrificed half the unit, dropped the champion and switched their role over to monster hunting. I ended up with a list that looks like this:

Chaos Lord of Khorne, Sword of Swift Slaying, Charmed Shield, Favour of the Gods, Talisman of Preservation

Exalted Battle Standard Bearer of Khorne, Necrotic Phylactery, Shield

Sorcerer of Tzeentch on Disc, Level 2, Third Eye, Infernal Puppet, Talisman of Protection

18 Warriors of Khorne, Halberds, Standard of Discipline, Musician

24 Warriors of Khorne, Extra Hand Weapons, Full Command, Razor Standard

5 Knights of Khorne, Flaming Banner, Musician

6 Trolls

Chariot of Khorne

Warshrine of Khorne

Scyla Afingrim

Nothing on the list outside of the infantry blocks and the characters are so expensive that I would really mind losing it. The knights and the Trolls are getting close to there, but not quite. I would also always hesitate to take a frenzied chariot. Nine times out of ten, I’d say it’s a bad idea because it’s so limited in where it can go and it was one bad roll from costing me in that regard, but I really got tempted by the 10 attacks it puts out per turn outside of any impact hits.

Strategically, the list is pretty straightforward. The infantry blocks try to dominate the center of the board, which will usually be achievable for them. The trolls and the warshrine take positions in the line next to the general’s block. The knights and chariot are set up on either flank. They can usually deal with anything that gets put out there, and they act as a pretty nasty pincer if my opponent castles up. Scyla is usually one of the last pieces deployed. He gets stacked up as the bait, or alternatively to hold up something nasty.

In game one, I was matched up against Tomb Kings. I had played them once before, so I had a general idea of how the book worked. I liked my chances, if I could just get past the chariots and Tomb Guard. Scyla bounded forwards, angled in front of the chariots and forcing a decision. If my opponent charged Scyla, he’d end up trapped between the trolls and knights. If not, he’d get boxed in to his deployment zone. He charged and accepted Scyla’s challenge with his Tomb King. Even with impact hits, it took two rounds of combat to kill Scyla, who rolled a pair of sixes for his attacks and managed to take the Tomb King with him. The knights and the Trolls also arrived in that time, and that was just too much to stand up to. On the opposite flank, a failed charge on my sorcerer exposed his cavalry’s flank to my chariot. From there, the tide of battle kept going my way, as the Warriors did what they do best in the centre. Turn six came around and I moved various units onto objectives and picked up a full twenty battle points.

This landed me on the top table, which was both a blessing and a curse, because it was right next to the wall that butts up against the restaurant next door’s kitchen. I also got stacked up against Chaos Dwarfs, which is definitely a match-up that I don’t like. My opponent had two cannons, 3 blocks of Dwarfs with blunderbusses, a Colossus, Obsidian Guard, and a level four wizard with Shadow. I usually prefer to dance around a little and try setting up a favorable match up, but between him being able to lower my toughness and a barrage of Earthshaker shells, I decided to sprint across the field and take what I could get. My right flank was denied by the Colossus and I knew it would take some time for the knights to get past it. I thought I’d try to take a few wounds off of it, so my sorcerer cast Infernal Gateway on turn two. Naturally, I rolled double sixes for the strength, sucking the monster into the warp, and suddenly the flank was wide open. It was one of the more memorable moments of the tournament, but I do hate to see how disheartening that can be. To my opponent’s credit, he looked on the bright side and proceeded to snipe my wizard with his bolt thrower the next turn. He blocked off my infantry with two hobgoblin meat shields, meaning I was grinding my way through about a hundred victory points with my two hardest hitting units. He ended up getting my trolls and my chariot, but not before they had run off the Obsidian Guard. I ended up taking the game 17-3 and stayed at the top table.

My last game was against something of an MSU High Elf army with a big block of White Lions and Korhil, plus three mages. He had way more units to deploy than me, so his Sea Guard with the Flaming Banner got to deploy opposite my trolls, which pretty much doomed them from the start. Both they and the chariot, which charged the Swordmasters, ended up surviving longer than expected, which gave me the opportunity to get my Warriors into his softer archers and spearmen. Scyla apparently hates chariots, because he had two rounds of combat in which he managed to roll sixes again, smashing it to pieces. The biggest surprise of the game was my opponent’s inability to get spells off. I shrugged off a magic missile, and let a couple ward saves go up, but he either failed to cast Dwellers below, or I dispelled it. The match was eventually decided when my Warriors with extra hand weapons charged his White Lions. Their massive strength and re-rolls to hit meant they were chopping down a bunch of my guys, but my weight of attacks meant I was going through his even faster. He fled in his turn, the top of six, which allowed me to complete a charge and wipe them out as the game was ending. The game went to me 14-4.

In all, I had a great time. I think I played really well almost the entire time, with only a few mistakes. My dice were probably pretty close to average, with some timely rolling at memorable moments, and a few whiffs that could have been. I’m looking forward to the next opportunity I have to do this.

I’d also like to say thanks to the guys that said they were following my preparation. It encouraged me a lot to try and get better at this.

Tournament Post #1, Hobby Side

Saturday saw the occurrence of the aforementioned tournament. To say that it went well would be an understatement, and a significant one at that. My goal going in had been to win at least one game, have fun, and at least get a little consideration for player’s choice. I will be a little more optimistic heading into the next tournament I attend.

After three good games, the dust settled and I had managed to go undefeated. We’re still awaiting the final posting in terms of battle points, so I don’t know if I finished with the highest score, but if I did, that’s just extra gravy on an already awesome day. I also got a vote for player’s choice and a lot of praise for my work, so my ego is reaching a size where it has to cannibalize itself to survive.

I am really happy with the way my army turned out. I am a very slow painter, but I really feel like the tournament deadline helped me push myself to get things done. It wasn’t an altogether unpleasant experience, but I don’t think that I’ll try to repeat it. The Warriors were getting done at a decent rate, by my standards at least. They weren’t anything incredibly intricate, but they’re the older kit, which didn’t have a lot of options as far as intricacy. Additionally, I decided I wanted to run the unit with extra hand weapons as a six wide by four deep block, which meant painting four more Warriors than I had originally intended. I didn’t really have the time, energy, or appropriate models for this, so I looked around at what was sitting around in my collection, grabbed a Bloodcrusher Juggernaut, and ended up with a pretty cool looking unit filler. This was the state they were in on Wednesday night:

Once the infantry were done, it was time to start working on the Wargs and the other peripheral units. The Warshirne was by far the easiest. I had an old corpse cart hanging out, and I had planned to put a charioteer with a whip in place of the necromancer. The feet were incorrectly positioned though, so I gave the necromancer a quick three shades of blood red on his outside cloak and swapped the zombies that I never liked out for some horses. I had some of the old chariots, but they had mostly fallen apart due to the incredibly poor basing system for chariots in the late 90’s. A little glue saw the model put back together, and I cut a new base using the spare parts from a movement tray.

At this point on Thursday night, I knew I wasn’t going to finish the job, so I chose to concentrate on the sorcerer. I wanted to keep him close to the overall color scheme of the army, but need some way to differentiate between his patronage to Tzeentch and the rest of the army’s loyalty to Khorne. The bloodletter mounted on him was going to provide plenty of the base blood red/chaos black/tin bitz colors, so I went with a pair of purples for his tunic and cloak. The Warlock Purple is straying towards warmer colors, and I think it does a nice job linking that part of the scheme to the cooler Liche Purple. I also used Chainmail on his armor, which in it of itself is not a shocking choice, but I’ve purposely avoided it throughout the rest of the force. I think individually it’s unnoticeable, but in the overall presentation of the force, it’s a small detail that subtly distinguishes him as different.

After a pretty bad SNAFU with the marble company, my marble didn’t ship until Wednesday night, so I was really sweating it out. Thankfully, it arrived Friday afternoon, so once I hit the door, I got to work basing. Doing the 25mm bases has never been easier. I’d glue down a section of tile, then paint the sides liberally with Scorched Brown. This contributes to the look of grout filling in the space between the bases as if it were a real temple. If I had left it unfinished or gone with black, I think it would have been a distraction from the base and the model. Both would have looked sloppy and hastily done. I also had to make some decisions on larger bases. The chariot sized bases and the 40mm squares actually had gaps between them on the bases themselves. I could have just painted them in, but instead I filled them with hard drying foam. It took a little while to set, but when it did, I just painted over it and I essentially had grout in between tiles. While it wasn’t necessarily the neatest job, it was relatively painless and unless you get close you can’t tell the difference.

Unfortunately, this work contributed to the demise of the Wargs and not being able to finish them. I got one done, but decided to go to bed around 4 a.m. I thought I’d get up at six. I was wrong. Nine o’clock rolled around and I had to scramble to find a tray. Then I drove as smoothly as possible to the game store. This involved making early decisions on running yellow lights and hoping so desperately that all the upraised metal bits directly behind my seat would not become projectiles in the case of a 65 mile per hour accident. I made it just fine, grabbed my table assignment, and things kicked off at 11:30.

That’s pretty much the extent of my hobby half of the tournament. I’ll delve into the game side of things tomorrow most likely. In the meantime, I want to thank Rush over at Warpstone Pile for putting on the tournament. He did a heck of a job. Things went smoothly and it seemed like everyone had a good time, mostly because everyone was talking about what a good time they had. Pairings were made quickly and adjusted so everyone go three games against different opponents, while still holding to the NOVA Open system that people are trying to prep for. So yeah, thanks Rush.

Tournament Prep Update

A quick update. I've finished 3 of the halberdiers, with some details on two to go, so that unit is almost done. It's a really slow pace, but I'm a really slow painter. I also justify it because I received the last bits of my army in the mail Wednesday, so naturally, I spent that night converting the 3 new Wargs and the Sorcerer. The Wargs only come in 3 poses, but with a few simple clips, you can swap out some of the weapons and heads and it at least makes you look twice before you declare them too monoposed. I like the way the sorcerer conversion came out. It was largely what I had pictured in my head, though I still need to iron out some details with the collar. Pics will follow soon.

Can I finish in time? Maybe. I need to finish the last two halberdiers Sunday night when I get back from my trip, then do the berzerkers on Monday, Tuesday, and into Wednesday. That leaves me some of Wednesday and Thursday for the Wargs and Friday for the sorcerer. If that happens, I can walk into the Tournament with a fully painted army.

The last hiccup beyond that, though, is the distinct possibility that the last of the marble doesn't show up in time. It's been ordered and has shipped, but it could arrive between Tuesday and Saturday, and if it's the latter, I'll be a sad panda. Oh well. I have to focus on what I can control.

Tournament Prep

My local club is having a tournament in about two weeks. Could a normal person with some focus have their army done in time? Most likely. As for me, I have 14 infantry, 6 monstrous infantry, a conversion and paintjob for a sorcerer, and a warshrine to paint, plus all the models need to be rebased. Thankfully, I have plenty of motivation and I'm excited to work on my Warriors of Chaos, since they in no way resemble Drop Pods.

I’ve managed to get the first ten warriors with halberds glued down, as well as my Lord and BSB. I like the way they are coming together.

The marble is from a company that does kitchen remodeling. The squares are each just under one inch, which makes them ideal for a 25mm base. It does make the 40mm bases that I’ll be using for my proxied trolls much more difficult. Thankfully, my dad happens to be something of a handyman, so I had access to a marble cutter. This is what they turned out like:

It’s a little rough on some of the smaller pieces, but it will certainly do, once I get a chance to paint the sides. Currently, I’m debating whether or not to fill in the gaps. I think it might help the illusion of a temple floor. If I did a scenic display board, I think it would look great, but I hesitate to do this for convenience' sake. If I did fill them in, that would essentially force me to use the same army list over and over if I wanted to reuse the board. If I didn’t, I could reuse it, replacing squares and pulling some out as needed. There's always just placing them on a flat board, if I wanted to stay basic. It’s something to chew on for a while.

As far as my list is concerned, most of it is set. I have about 275 points that I’m not sure what to do with, though I suppose that beats being way over. I have two solid infantry blocks, the trolls, and a nasty unit of cavalry. I think I’m going to take some things that are less hitty. The units should provide plenty of punch, so what I need is something to play a nuisance roll, or a force multiplier, or something like that. Options include a warshrine, spawn, an un-upgraded daemon prince, Throgg, Wulfrik, upgrading warriors to Chosen, or a small unit of knights. We'll see what I come up with.

The Other Half...

Continuing on from Monday, game 2 was a Dawn Attack match-up against another Chaos Warrior army played by one of the newer regulars at the club. I played him in his first fantasy game and thought it might be time for a rematch. His army consisted of two massive blocks, some knights, and a ton of characters. And I do mean massive blocks. Forty Khorne Marauders in a horde, with great weapons, is definitely something I’ve seen before, but his other block was 40 Tzeentch Warriors with halberds. It’s very hard and very killy, especially once he dropped his lord and battle standard in there.

I didn’t have anything to deal with it directly, but we were playing with four swamps on the board, so I thought I might be able to restrict and direct his movement with my smaller, more numerous units. It worked for the most part, splitting the board into two individual games on either flank. On my left side, there was a single mass combat between his marauders and my knights and dual wielding warriors. I was able to feed his Exalted Hero in the unit a pair of champions, while mine worked over his Sorcerer and Sorcerer Lord. I took a lot of casualties to the great weapons, but I was doing so many attacks that focused on the softer Marauders, they failed their third break test and ran from my remaining two warriors.

On the right side, I made some mistakes that really could have cost me. Initially, I did a good job of bringing him to me over the swamps. I fed him Scyla the spawn at one edge, then the warshrine on the other. I think, over the course of two or three dangerous terrain checks, he lost about a quarter of his big unit and took a wound on his Lord. Unfortunately, I overestimated the odds of the warshrine holding and took a charge in the back of my halberd unit. On the plus side, this opened up a counter charge by the Daemon Prince which really helped even the odds. My Lord challenged his, each doing two wounds, but with the crucial terrain wound, his went down. My warriors each had four attacks thanks to a blessing from the Eye of the Gods and frenzy, and I was able to put out more damage than he could soak up. In subsequent rounds, my Lord took out his battle standard in a challenge, and my guys did just enough damage to take him to just a front rank so he wouldn’t be steadfast. He failed both leadership checks, and that was that.

So all in all, two really fun games. I didn’t have more than a handful of models left on the table after either, but I squeezed it out.

Hobby Update

After a rough January, it seems my hobby mojo is back. It’s been a couple weeks since the last hobby update, and if I’m not mistaken, every one of my goals has been accomplished. I talked about acquiring A Game of Thrones previously, but that leaves the Daemon Prince, which is a pretty big model, and quartering the remaining Raptors, which meant doing everything twice.

The Raptors did turn out really well though. Because of the highly detailed nature of the upper bodies, the only part that was difficult to get a straight line of color on was the groin. It was encouraging not to have to go back over and over to try and get it right. While I do think the gold is prominent, I don’t think it goes so far over the top on the regular troopers that people will get confused when they look at them next to the rest of the army. The Aspiring Champion is very different, but that was a conscious choice. He bears enough of the common motifs that run through the army.

I really dig how the brown laurels came out on this marine.

It was incredibly simple, just a basecoat, wash, and a couple highlights. However, it emphasizes something I want to start doing to turn my army from tabletop force to special. I feel like adding little details like this one will do a lot. It is one aspect I began implementing with the Raptors, and plan on doing retroactively with the models I have. I want each unit to be unique, but have common features that tie the army together, so I sat down and put together a plan for details, like legion marking on the left, squad marking on the right, and a warhost marking on a knee cap. Beyond that, one squad will get dead laurels, another books, another censers, etc… I think with a fresh set of paint, it’ll look really sharp.

The Daemon Prince is a little different story. I love the model. I’m even planning a post on it once I finish his counterpart. But it was hard to take him too seriously. He’s a model for a secondary army. He’s not a choice that I’d take too often if I had the option. He’s got a lot of skin, which isn’t going to be a natural color. So he probably ended up right around tabletop ready.

It’s sad, but not unexpected when you realize this was my inspiration.

Still, I think he looks pretty solid with the steroid body and beady eyes.

Hobby Accomplishments

- Finished all previous hobby goals!

- Played multiple games!

- Primed the drop pods

- Bought a Land Raider Redeemer, the final piece of the Blood Wing

Hobby Goals

- Get at least one coat of red on each drop pod

- Fully finish the first pod

- Find out where the heck my land raider doors are

Gaming Update

With Monday off, the weekend was breaking just right to get in some gaming. It did not disappoint.

Game one, on Saturday, was against a club regular. I don’t play nearly enough to say I have regular opponents, but we’ve played a number of times and always have good games.

We played the watchtower scenario with my Khorne Warriors pitted against his Skaven. I run two blocks of 20 Warriors, 2 units of knights, a warshrine, a Daemon Prince and some other things. It’s less optimal than I would like, and the local metagame seems to be pushing higher up the competitive scale.

For example, I was asked what I think about the Prince, and my snap response was, “It’s a really nice model.” Toughness 5, a 5+ ward save, and no real options to make him more survivable means he goes down to any concentrated effort. He’s stubborn but only on leadership 8, and since he can’t keep up with rank bonuses and banners, he’s really only good as a war machine hunter or as a supplement to some other combat unit. At around 350-400 points, he costs way too much on his own, especially for those roles, but he also squeezes the points available for a Chaos Lord, which I need to take for his leadership 9 on frenzy checks. I ought to take a big block of Marauders over the second unit of knights, and I want to throw in a wizard and maybe Ogres instead of the Prince, but currently I have the models for neither. I desperately need the magic defense, with a +0 on dispels currently, and I would love to have some range. Considering how sparingly I play though, what I have is viable enough to finish painting all my other stuff before I set about expanding.

The game turned out to be epic. My opponent garrisoned the watchtower with 20 Stormvermin. I promptly sent my Warriors with Halberds into it, toting my Chaos Lord. It took two turns, but it was over quickly, and pretty brutal. It was at this point that I started feeling pretty good about myself. Then I failed to charge his warp lightning cannon with my Prince, which left him staring down a Doomwheel. Then my dual axe wielding Warrior block with my Battle Standard charged his big block of Plague Monks with a Plague Furnace, whiffed on their attacks, and were promptly run down.

He charged my guys in the watchtower on turn 3 with his Abomination, but my knights had run it down far enough that what was left of my unit killed it in one go before it could attack. It, of course, promptly returned to life. The top of turn 4 saw me with only five guys left in the watchtower and three warhounds running around the table. His bombardment on the bottom of 4 was less than accurate, but still accounted for everyone but the Chaos Lord and the dogs. With only one model of consequence left on the table, I rolled for the end of the game and turned up a six that I desperately needed. You’ve gotta love shady club dice at crucial moments.

To be continued...