Praise the Omnissiah!

 So, after a little bit more work here's the next update.  This one is up to date, as I just took these photos.  I have added a grille and some more sensors to the snout, as well as some steps and a handle for the hatch on the cockpit.  I've also glued on most of the kit's armor, though the shin guards are just snapped on for the photo.  It will be easier to paint with them off.  I still need to add some armor to the front of the thighs.

 I have added and armor shroud above the neck today, it's still a bit rough and needs sanding and some raised details.  The antenna is also new.  The ammo box on the Gatling cannon is magnetized so I can take it off when I use the turbo laser.  I plan on getting some of those linked ammunition that I had mentioned in an earlier post to have coming out of the box.

Just a bit from the back, added some engine bits from a scale car kit.  Nothing much to note here really.  The back already had a nice bit of detail.

And lastly the storm bolter on the sword arm.  It comes from the old, old Leman Russ kit.  The ammo line is from a stash I got from an old vietnam era huey kit I had as a young child.

Titan Knight?

 So, last weekend I got started on my Dreadknight to Knight Titan conversion.  I cut off the mount where the Terminator sits, I also removed those ridiculous cylinders on the hips and ankles.  Then, I extended the torso by 3/4" using plasticard and plastic piping as a frame. After this I made some weapons, and mounted them to the elbow of the left arm.  The first one is some sort of turbo laser type of weapon, it can be seen above.  The next is a gattling blaster, seen below.  After that I got to work on the cockpit.  The first take can be seen in the first picture, but this was too big, so after cutting it down I remounted it below.

 I also used the servo arms for the overhead hydraulics to extend the legs and have them more resemble those of a Warhound Titan.  This brought the Height up to about 5 1/2"

 Since these photos, some more has been done, including the armor plates and details for the torso and cockpit.  I will update this with some of the new photos later.

So, please let me know what you think at this point.  I know the cockpit looks a bit disproportionate here, but we'll see when all the details and armor are added.  This is the smallest I can make it and still have it be reasonably sized for a crewman to sit inside. 
I will be drawing some stats at some point.
Comments? Criticism? Hate?

-The Emperor Protects

Flawless Defeat

So, last week's crazy comp tournament went pretty terrible for me.  I ended up 0-3 with 2 massacred and one close game.  There were 18 players that day.  I'm not feeling too much in the way of writing about it, so I'll give some very basic summaries here.

I did tie for both Best Painted Army and Best Sportsmanship with the same guy. So, we ended up each getting 15 bucks and sharing both titles.  I used the money to help pay for a Cadian Command squad, which I am going to convert with some bits I've got into a veteran squad wit magnetized weapons options.

Game 1 Vs. Dark Eldar


This player had some beasts,wyches,  warriors, harlequins, a Venom, a Ravager, and a Raider.  Oh and a whole bunch of Jetbikes...
The Scenario was 2+D3 objectives, with table quarters.  We placed an objective in each quarter and one in the center.  I ended up winning the roll and chose this quarter as it had the best cover to line of sight ratio.  He reserved most of his army, so I spent the first turn shooting at his warriors on his quarter's objective.  I killed quite a few, his Ravager was out of LOS but I hit it with a Manitcore scatter, but his flicker field saved him.  He moved out on his turn an popped my Russ.  He also popped my Chimera moving toward the objective on my left.  Stranding some vets.  The vendetta dropped some vets on the objective ahead of me.  He brought in his harlequins turn 2 as well as a squad of Wyches.  The Harlequins did diddily, and the wyched cleared out the vets on the one objective.  The devil dog made popped the ravager in the center.  Killed some more warriors, and ran the vets to the leftward objective.  He got his raider and beasts in turn 2 they moved up on my right.  The vendetta was struck down and that's about it for his turn.  I get my devil dog to try and melta the raider and it fails epicly.  Lascannons kill the viper, rockets kill some wyches with fire on my target.  The manticore leaves the beast squad with no master and only 2 left.  He pops the devil dog  and makes grand assault.  2 squads of wyches go into my blob on 2 sides.  the Vets to the left are assaulted and destroyed.  By numbers alone one of the Wych units is taken out, but the other one takes out all but one of the blob's Commissars.  In the end I'm left with a Manticore with only a heavy bolter which is immobilised.  There were Dark Eldar everywhere....  I could not kill enough to make a big enough dent before the assault.

 

Game 2 Vs. Guard

This was the closest of my games and was also the most boring.  It was basically a slugfest, long range duel, but with little result.  Dawn of war, annihilation.

The only highlight of this game was my Platoon command with Commissar assaulting one of his veteran squads,  I wiped it out without taking a loss to my own unit.  They later got gunned down my heavy bolters.  The game ended up 7-6 in his favor, on turn 7.  The shooting was abysmal for both of us, the dice gods failed us both very much.  Had shooting been more effective, it would have been more spectacular and fun.

  

Game 3 Vs Orks

Spearhead 2 objectives+1st dead HQ

Orks, never played them before, this was my favorite one by far, something was always happening and something was always dying.  His Kustom force field allowed him to weather most of my arty against his vehicles, but they exploded only once they were already too close.  I may have killed his vehicles, but gork and mork was wit im.  He Waaghed pretty well and engaged almost my entire army at once.  His mega nobs took on my HQ and only the commander survived thanks to his 5+ invul.  In the end I had no vehicles left.  With only a plasma gun Spec Wep sqd and a platoon command, where as he had all 3 objectives and a crap ton of boyz.

 

Next month is 'Ard boyz style and my list is already coming along.  I played it against my friend and his Grey Knights last Wednesday and we drew.  I could have won, but waited one turn too long to break the armor Phalanx and advance some chimeras.  He's still got to get used to the army, so this week may be a bit harder to pull a draw.

Tempest - The calm before the storm

     So, tomorrow I venture forth from Buffalo to go to my third tournament.  Today was pretty good, the Sabres have won, and they've just made the playoffs by getting it to overtime.  I've finished everything to be ready for the tourny tomorrow, which uses the rules from my previous post.
First up, this is something I just decided to do tomorrow, a carrying and display board for my army.  I used a piece of hard board we had laying around and slapped it together after I finished the manticore.  The road is plasticard, the walls styrofoam and some ballast and sculpter for various heights. Primed it black this morning and painted it after classes.  Lots of pigments used for to make the road look just right.  The stripes were masked in and dabbed with yellow so the cover is not even and they look worn.  I made a couple little posters for the walls and that's about it.  About 5-6 hours of work all told.  Not too bad, I'm glad I decided to do this.

     I've wanted to build something like this for quite some time, primarily for something to take my pictures on other than a black piece of paper.  So, this tournament and the board being available made a great excuse to do this.

     That being said, here's the Manitcore which I finished yesterday night,   I have named it Tempest. I am very pleased with the results,  I used the same methods as in my last tank Tough Bastard, for weathering and in the color scheme.

     I will tell you that I would not want that thing pointed in my direction.  I added the sensor group over the heavy bolter from the Vehicle Command sprue from GW.  I thought it looked much better than that dinky radar dish.

Here's the other side where is reads "We live to serve" on the access panel.  If you can notice I pin hinged the ordnance officer's hatch so you can open it and see inside.

     I forgot to put the blue and white checker on this guy yesterday and I was going to do it today, but I totally forgot and packed it away already.  Alas, it will be done when I get back tomorrow.  All of the rockets have something written on them, as we know people like to give a friendly, or not so friendly message to those who they are going to blow to bits.  "Cluster Fuck" on one since the Storm Eagle rockets are cluster munitions.  On the next is PacMan eating up some dots and it reads D3 Wakka, considering he wakkas when ever he eats a dot(template). "From Cadia with love" and "The 14th was here" on the other two

I wrote the Prayer of Smiting on this vehicle, from the Imperial Infantryman's Uplifting Primer.  In case you cannot see it, it reads;

Spirits in the Machine, Reward our Faith, and Smash the target.

     Here is the ordnance officer's compartment, this is the only viable angle to take a picture from, but you can look around much better in person.  You can see Killroy is in there, ever vigilent.  There's also an Aquila, a bunch of random text and "Kill em All!"

     That's all for today.  I got to playtest my new list this week and it performed much better than the last.  My friend pulled the luckiest roll I have ever seen, pulling me off the objective with a unit that only reached me because he rolled a 6 for his consolidation.  Wish me luck at Millenium, I'll probably need it.  Expect some battle reports on Sunday or whenever I have time.  I'll be taking some pictures this time so maybe we'll get to see some other armies.

-The Emperor Protects

Heavy Weapons Guys

Bahaha! Cry some more.


     Had to do some painting for next weeks tournament in Rochester as they are going to be scoring it.  I had two of these Lascannon Teams painted before, but not photographed.  The two older ones both have skulls magnetized to count their first wound.  I am out of magnets right now so the one on the left does not feature this yet.  I also have the autocannons and heavy bolters which I can swap out for the lascannons, but they are not painted yet.  Plus, I found this linked ammo in 1/6 scale 5.56, 7.62, and .50 which for 28 mm will translate well from autocannon up to something heavier.  It will be great to have this type of ammo for my autocannons.

     Next I have the missile teams which I wrote about in an earlier post.  They're all painted up and named.  I prefer missile launcher teams to be on small bases, but just to be more in line with the rules I made some 60mm bases from plasticard and air-drying sculpter.  They just pop in and out right now, but when we get more magnets they will be magnetized.  They fit pretty tight and it scratches the small base a bit to remove/insert them, but I will be able to fix this when I magnetize them.

     I also got all of the rebasing done for the army which I am taking to the tournament, which after last weeks playtest has been changed.  It really did not do well in its origional form,  I lost to my brother's Blood Angels and then to my friend's Space Wolves.  I'm going to be playing with my new list this week and I really think it's going to do a lot better than the last one.  We'll see.

     On another note I got a Dreadknight for 40 bucks at the local hobby shop.  It's 4 inches as built by instructions, but that's not as I am using it.  I plan on converting it into a Knight Titan, and it should stand about 5.5 inches when I am finished with it.  I will be adding some more bulk an height to the torso, and well as to the shoulders.  I have not decided if I am going to have the ranged weapon wrist mounted or to have it mounted as they do on the FW Titan kits.  I will be serioulsy bulking up the weapons provided to be more in line with a Titan weapon.  I'll also have to make up a set of rules, which should not be too hard.  This will be the start of the Legio Redemptus which is the Titan Legion my friend and I are planning on starting.  I'll be getting one or two more Dreadknights to convert in the future.  I'm also planning on buying a Reaver Titan *at some point.*  My friend is going to start out with a Warhound some time this year, then maybe another next year.