WH40k: WiP Cadian Rough Riders

It's been awhile, but the blog has finally caught up to me.  I don't have a finished model to post this week.  That's not to say there is nothing!  I have here a long in coming squad of Cadian Rough Riders squad which I have been working on for a rather long time.  I started converting the first one in 2012!!!  You can see a post about that HERE.  I've posted about them here and there since then, but now they are finally getting some much needed paint!

Not being a Fantasy [R.I.P.] player, I've never had to paint any horses before, so that's where I started working here.  I finished them in April or so and then having to do base layers on the riders has caused me to stretch out painting them ever since.  I loathe doing base colors.  Today I finally finished the base colors and even threw a wash on. I hope to keep rolling along and finish them by next week.  That way I can start a new project before the next blog post.

I think I have mentioned it before but they are going to be magnetized to allow for some variation, if I ever use them that is.  Stay frosty!

WH40k: Aegis Defense Line

All that infantry needs some protection, so I've painted up my Aegis Defense line to help keep 'em all alive.  I have not used this set too often, but I really like the look of it and the quad autocannon.  I think I put this together and did all of the modelling work some time in 2013.  I went and did a lot of battle scarring and added a bit of details to the set to make it seem more unique.  Most notable on the walls I've used plasticard to show some of the shutters as being closed.

I spent a lot more time painting this than I had planned.  For terrain I usually just try and keep it simple.  I ended up doing all sorts of washing, grime, and pigments.  I think it was worth it.

More pictures after the break.

WH40k: Techpriest Enginseer

Ave Dues Mechanicus!  The Cadian 125th Armored Division finally has someone to fix all of those tanks they drive around and blow stuff up with.  This is another model I have been meaning to paint and use for some time.  It's even made of metal, not finecast.  I really enjoy painting characters and such as a standout from the gray of my infantry.  On the tabletop this model should stand out from the blobs and add some nice color to the army.  

This model took me several nights of work to complete with all of the shading I did and the details there were to pick out.  His armor matches the gray of my army, but is heavily chipped with the sponge method.  Again, I really need to improve my photos.  They've been coming out a bit darker than I like.  It may be that my work bulb is getting a bit long in the tooth.

The one thing I don't care for is how the caution stripes turned out on the end of his axe.

APOCALYPSE!

So last month our group had an apocalypse game, 6 players, 5000 points each.  It was Imperial Guard, Blood Angels and Space marines on my team and Chaos, Orks, and traitor Guard on the other side.  By the end the Imperial Side was really decimated, and so we called it after the second session. Defilers and their daemon saves be damned.

Week 1 was our set up and deployment Week 2 saw the forces of evil winning 4 objectives to 2 and a slight advantage in kills as well.  Week 3 saw evil with 9 objective points to 3 and the Imperial forces with enough casualties to render them ineffective against a much larger force.  It was a huge clusterfuck but it was still fun.

Here are a few pictures. With the whole album available here.

July-August Update

Been slipping on updating again, but not on working!  Since the last update I have been pretty darn busy!  I painted a bunch of BFG cruisers after I finished the Knights.  Then I built my Hydra kit, with a few added details and modifications.  After that I finished up my rough riders after I found some legs to use from Curious Constructs.  After that I finished up my Salamander Scout Car.  More recently I have been working on something special for BFG.  A dreadnought class vessel which will be called Triton, I'll hold off on pictures on this for now, but once I finish roughing out the main components you can expect a post.  Lastly I finally got some of the new Rebel fighters for X-Wing today and decided to try a new theme, sorta German Luftwaffe inspired color scheme.  You can see the test model on the Headhunter below, after the break.  

The Baneblade ZEAL

The Baneblade, the pinnacle of armored warfare in the 41st millennium.  The stories tell of their might, a single squadron can hold off entire companies of enemy armor.  They are a rare beast these days, their loss is keenly felt and difficult to replace.  An entire war was waged to recover Commissar Yarrick's Baneblade The Fortress of Arrogance.

I got my Baneblade kit soon after they were released and painted it not much after that.  Over the last few years it was really showing its age, and I decided last year to repaint it.  I posted then that I was stripping it of its old paint and earlier this year I finally got around to slapping on a new paint job.  Zeal  is again ready to go to war for the Imperium and now I don't even have to only use it in Apocalypse.  Though the best part is seeing it with all the techniques I have learned since the last time I painted the tank.

Here it is now.

More after the break.

Destroyer Tank Hunter

So, I finally got around to painting up my converted tank destoyer.  I settled upon the name Armordillo.  This tank will be the lead vehicle for my 3rd Armor Squadron.  The other 2 tanks are FW turreted Vanquishers.  I used a couple new products on this tank.  They are AK productions panzer grey grime and concrete dust effect.  I used these to do some streaking which you can see in some of the side on shots.  Without further ado, here's the pics.


You can see the art I made on the barrel of an armadillo with a cannon in its back.

Commissar Sebastian Yarrick

So, I had my third battle report from last weekend's event all set and ready to publish when blogger had a derp and decided to kill it.  So instead of spending an hour rewriting that I'm going to do a quick post on a model I painted today, you may have guessed who it was from the title.  It's Commissar Yarrick!

This is the first Special Character I have painted for my Imperial Guard army.  It's also the first Finecast model I dealt with, though I have a few more waiting for paint.  I really like this model and really liked painting it.  I'd say I probably spent about 4-5 hours painting him today.  Really like the way he came out, but really not that glad with the way the photos came out.  I think it's about time to get a new camera.  I may try and take some better pictures tomorrow.

Battle Report: Learning 6th Event: Game 2: Guard Vs. Nids GAME OVER, MAN!

Finally got out to an event over in Rochester, NY yesterday at Millennium Games.  It was not really a tournament but a set of three games to let people learn to new rules and see how theirs lists would work out under them.  Multiple lists were allowed and prizes were handed out by a raffle at the end.

The format was 1500pts with three 2.5 hour long rounds.  Since this event was really just for fun and learning I wanted to try something that I had not really done before, bring a list with a minimum of vehicles and large number of infantry.  With the reduction in cover saves I really didn't know how this list would work out, last edition 4+ saves were good, but I was a bit worried about the 5+.  I also wasn't sure how this list would react to different armies.  I've used a vehicle heavy Guard army since I started playing in 3rd edition.   I just love tanks.

Here's my list:
HQ
Company Command Squad(Power Fist, Med-Pack, Standard,Vox, Plasma Gun) + Chimera
Fast
Vendetta Gunship
Troops
Vets 1 ( 3Plasma Guns, Grenadiers, Power Fist) + Chimera
Vets 2 ( 3 Meltas, Demolitions, Power Fist) (In Vendetta)
Infantry Platoon
Command Squad (Vox, Power Sword, Commissar, Power Sword, Standard)
5 Infantry Squads (2 Commissars, 7 Power Swords, 2 Vox, 3 Flamers, 2 Grenade Launchers)
Heavy Weapons Squad (3 Lascannons)
Heavy Weapons Squad (3 Missile Launchers)
Special Weapons Squad (3 Sniper Rifles)
Special Weapons Squad (3 Grenade Launchers)

Vehicle Count: 3
Infantry Count: 101

I don't think I ever made a list without a Leman Russ before, and with the new Squadron rules taking a pair of them isn't so bad, even with the limitation of having Hull Points.

Game 2

My second battle was against Aaron (hyv3mynd from synaps3) and his Tyranids.  You can check out his version of events here.  Below you can see his list:
Tyranid Prime (warlord) + whip/sword, toxins, regen (bio)
Tyrant + wings, devourers, old adversary, regen
Hive Guard x3
Zoanthropes x3 (all telekenesis this game)
Termagants x30 (warlord here)
Tervigon + claws, toxins, 3 powers (bio), cluster spines
Raveners x6 + rending
Shrikes x3 + whip/sword, toxins

Mission 2 featured the Hammer & Anvil deployment with The Emperor's Will as objectives.  Below you can see our terrain set up,  I have the right side of the board and he had the left.  You can see his objective next to the gray ruin and mine was in the building centered on my side.  We both wanted to set up terrain to our own favor.  He wanted to cover his advance and I wanted to protect my troops so they could shoot more before they got nom'd.  I think that my warlord caused my units within 12 to have move through cover but I do not recall what his was.

Aaron gets 1st turn and deployment so I get to go second.  We both deploy right up on the edge of our zones,  he wants to close with me as soon as possible and I wanted to open fire as soon as possible.  He doesn't have any reserves but I reserve my Vendetta with Melta vets inside to outflank.I put the 20 man blob and platoon command in the far building.  The rocketeers and large blob are in the center.  In the nearest building is a lascannon squad, the grenade launcher squad, and my Company Command in their Chimera.  In the rear building are the snipers with the plasma vets just beyond that in their Chimera.

Turn 1

The nids begin to advance through cover,  the flyrant comes flying at my lines and so forth.  The tervigon spawns 17 gants but rolls doubles so they will be all that come out.  They move to hold his objective and get a skyfire nexus.  How amazingly useful...  The thropes cast some invul bubbles and buff the flyrant.

The flyrant shoots up and shreds my Lascannon teams and the 4+ cover is not nearly enough to save them,  Aaron takes 1st blood.  

I move nothing, and begin to fire upon the bugs. My objective is nothing of note. I order bring it down for the missile teams against the flyrant and then first rank fire, second rank fire on each of the blobs.  The 20 man blob downs a ravener and other shooting kills 1 gant.  No other harm is done.  

Turn 2

The tyranids advance again, gants and tervigon remain in cover the shrikes move up again and the ravenors prepare to assault the blob.  The flyrant flies over the 30 man unit and lands at its rear near all the sergeants and the commissar.  For shooting, the hive guard attempt to de-mech the plasma vets but fail to cause any damage.  Zoanthropes attempt to wipe out the missile teams but all of their crushes only manage to kill 1 team.  Still, it's enough to force a morale check.  The flyrant dishes out some pain to the blob and kills 2 sarges and a commissar as well as some troopers.  Look out sir! wasn't doing to well here.  Don't think the troops liked their leaders much. 

 The raveners assault the 20 man blob, I think overwatch causes 1 wound and striking first does not help me much either.  They end up killing more than half of the unit, though we're stubborn and hold fast.  The missile teams pass morale prepare to unleash some more rockets.

In my turn I roll to see if the Vendetta comes in but it does not.  I move my platoon command squad to cover the side of the 30 man blob, though I probably should have just charged for the extra attacks.  I shoot at the flyrant but fail to do anything.  I cause 1 wound on the terivigon and wipe out the shrikes.  I think one of the zoanthropes died this turn.  In the assault phase the raveners finish off the infantry and consolidate towards the platoon command.

Turn 3

The tervigon begins to come towards my lines, bringing some of the gant blob with it.  The tyrant flies over my command squad's chimera and toward the nearest table corner.  The ravenors continued to move at the PCS.  Both of my Chimeras are blown this turn, the plasma vets get pinned but the company command is not thanks to their Regimental Standard's morale reroll.

The Tervigon assaults the blob but the gants fail to follow.  The raverners engages the PCS and wipe them, they consolidate towards the plasma vets.  The tervigon takes a wound and kills a few guardsmen, they hold, even without their commissar.

The Vendetta arrives and outflanks this turn, I zoom it onto the board and shoot at the zoanthropes, killing those that remained.  The plasma vets shoot at the raveners and cause some wounds, killing 1 I believe.  Shooting from the CCS grounds the tyrant, even though it could not wound it, a lasgun brought it down to the ground. Combat with the tervigon continues to grind on.

The gants all shuffle around again to max out cover.  The tyrant turns and shoots my CCS to death.  The raveners charge my dismounted plasma veterans.  Overwatch manages to cause a few more wounds thanks to some lucky plasma gun hits.

The veterans must have been ready for action because I dish out quite a few regular wounds before he gets his attacks.  Then the powerfist strikes with them and causes some more wounds. In the end only 1 ravener remains alive while I lose 2 guardsmen.   He fails morale due to a lack of synapse but I fail to catch him.  The tervigon combat continues but the blob falls back this time.  They wind up right on top of the objective.

The lone ravener flees, making sure to keep an eye on the guardsmen just insane enough to fight them in close combat.

On my turn the Vendetta hovers forward and the mela vets dismount.

I move the melta vets forward and begin to open fire.  The melta vets shoot melta and some shotguns, but I also toss a demo charge and frag grenade at the gaunts.  All this only manages to kill about 6 of them.
Plasma vets put a wound on the last ravener.  The blob rallies and shoots at the tervigon dropping it to 1 wound. Most everything else fires at the tyrant leaving it with only 1 wound.  The vendetta hits the tervigon as well but rolls only 1s to wound.

Turn 5

The spawned gaunts on his objective shoot and assault the vets, the hive guard do nothing.  The Tervigon and tyrant both assault the blob.  The Vets and the blob are both wiped out.  

On my turn I take out the tyrant with lots of my fire.  The tervigon is able to absorb the rest, but I forget to shoot my grenade launcher special weapons squad.  We have to end the game here due to time.

Summary

In the end Aaron had 5VP to my none, since he took first blood, slayed my warlord, held his objective, and contested my own.  Had I fired my grenade launchers, it could have ended up 5-3, but my only hope of really winning would have been to pull the gants off of his objective somehow.  Overall this was a very fun game and it was great to finally play against Aaron as I have seen him at several events and have been reading his blog for some time now.  In this case I don't think player placed terrain worked out too badly as we both got what we wanted out of it, but it still looked kinda cinematic with my guard trying to hold their line against the encroaching alien menace.  Still, I think for tournaments that TO set terrain would be preferable.

My vendetta rolled a lot of 1s to wound this game but still preformed okay.  It didn't die, so that was nice too.  With this game in the books I was impressed with how this list preformed.  Coming into this set of games I really expected a lot worse.  Warlord traits are hit or miss, but I think they are a cool addition to the game

Game 3 sometime later.  I may just want to spend tomorrow night painting.

Battle Report: Learning 6th Event: Game 1: Guard Vs. Guard Action!

Finally got out to an event over in Rochester, NY yesterday at Millennium Games.  It was not really a tournament but a set of three games to let people learn to new rules and see how theirs lists would work out under them.  Multiple lists were allowed and prizes were handed out by a raffle at the end.  

The format was 1500pts with three 2.5 hour long rounds.  Since this event was really just for fun and learning I wanted to try something that I had not really done before, bring a list with a minimum of vehicles and large number of infantry.  With the reduction in cover saves I really didn't know how this list would work out, last edition 4+ saves were good, but I was a bit worried about the 5+.  I also wasn't sure how this list would react to different armies.  I've used a vehicle heavy Guard army since I started playing in 3rd edition.   I just love tanks. 

Here's my list:

HQ

Company Command Squad(Power Fist, Med-Pack, Standard,Vox, Plasma Gun) + Chimera

Fast

Vendetta Gunship

Troops

Vets 1 ( 3Plasma Guns, Grenadiers, Power Fist) + Chimera

Vets 2 ( 3 Meltas, Demolitions, Power Fist) (In Vendetta)

Infantry Platoon

Command Squad (Vox, Power Sword, Commissar, Power Sword, Standard)

5 Infantry Squads (2 Commissars, 7 Power Swords, 2 Vox, 3 Flamers, 2 Grenade Launchers)

Heavy Weapons Squad (3 Lascannons)

Heavy Weapons Squad (3 Missile Launchers)

Special Weapons Squad (3 Sniper Rifles)

Special Weapons Squad (3 Grenade Launchers)

Vehicle Count: 3

Infantry Count: 101

I don't think I ever made a list without a Leman Russ before, and with the new Squadron rules taking a pair of them isn't so bad, even with the limitation of having Hull Points.

Now, I planned on doing a little more in depth battle reports this time, but the pictures to do so did not really turn out all that well.  I had my camera set to macro all day and so most of the times I tried to take a full table shot it turned out very blurry.  So I will just be posting some summaries and thoughts on what I or my opponent may have wanted to do differently.  

Battle #1

My first battle was against "C4" with a list that was somewhat similar to my own, here's an approx:

HQ

Company Command (Vox, Standard, and I think an Autocannon)

Troops

Vets with Meltas in chimera

Vets with Meltas in chimera

Infantry platoon 

Command Squad with 4 Grenade Launchers

2 Squads; 1 with Lascannon and GL and one with Autocannon and Grenade Launcher

Heavy Weapons Team with Autocannons

Infantry Platoon

Command Squad with 4 Flamers

2 Squads; Both with an Autocannon

Heavy Support

Leman Russ Battle Tank with 3 Heavy Bolters

Fast Attack

5 Rough Riders

Scout Sentinel

Mission 1 was Dawn of War Deployment with Purge the Alien objectives.  We both set up a nice defensive line with infantry and vehicles in good cover.  He gets first turn and we don't have night fighting so I roll to seize but I fail.  Here's the best picture I have of our deployment.  

Turn 1 he begins by advancing his Chimeras and a couple of the infantry squads.  For shooting he focuses on my snipers and my 2 heavy weapons squads.  With the Leman Russ he shoots the snipers and kills 4 along with a few men from the large blob.  Autocannon and las fire kill 2 of the Lascannon teams, and heavy weapons wipe out all of the missile launchers. Neither of my units fail morale. He gets First blood and ends his turn 1 with 2 VP.

I move up my lest side chimera with the plasma veterans as well as the grenade launcher squad.  Everything else stays put to fire at his units now in the open.   I order bring it down against the Chimera and first rank second rank on the blobs.  The Vet chimera fails to pen on the side of his own chimera but the plasma vets inside manage to rapid fire it to death.   The men disembark and the center blob fires at them and kill a few. The grenade squad fires at an infantry squad and manages to kill 4 or so but they pass morale.

I've got 1 VP for the Chimera.

Turn 2

In this turn C4 tries to finish off the snipers and Lascannon squads.  Battle cannon and las fire kill the sniper and some more men from the center blob and he manages to kill the Lascannon team with plasma and las fire from the infantry and veteran squads on the right hand side.  He also kills off the three riflemen from the grenade launcher squad on the left and strips a hull point from the veteran's chimera. I pass all my morale checks so he gets 2 more VP. His scout sentinel comes in on my right and shoots at my platoon command, killing one man.

I shift more men into firing positions now that losses are taken from the front.  My Vendetta comes in on the right side but fails to pen the side of the Russ,  I rolled 2 1s.  The multi laser from my chimeras fails to do anything to his remaining Chimera.  I return fire again with infantry and force a couple more morale checks on 2 infantry  and one veteran squad.  2 of them fall back but only a few inches.

Turn 3

He shuffles more troops forwards and finally brings the Rough Riders out from behind a rock.  He was hoping to bring down the Vendetta and then assault any survivors.  He begins by firing a lot of heavy weapons at the gunship,  I think in all it was about 10-12 Autocannon shots, with 6 of them rerolling from bring it down.  He rolled a six with the ordered unit but failed to pen.  He then shoots some melta and his chimera at it as well, it continued to zoom on unscathed.  The Leman Russ shifted a bit and shot at the 20 man unit doing a lot of damage, only a few men remained.  Other losses are negligible.  He assaults my platoon command with the sentinel but fails to wound, I win combat due to my standard,

He remains at 4 VP.

I try again to destroy his Russ and remaining Chimera as they should have been the easiest to kill with what I had to fire, however I fail to do anything to either of them.  So, my grenade launcher squad fires on the right and finishes off the infantry squad they had been targeting all day.  I shoot some other units but they all either pass morale or fall back only 3-4 inches.

It was a slow game with all of this infantry and C4 was not the fastest player, so we ran out of time at the end of my turn.

Summary

C4 brought a lot more long range firepower than I did and it really showed.  He was able to bring that fire to bear and take out my vulnerable units early on which led to his victory.  I am not sure why he advanced so much,  he could have held fast and forced me into the open while firing with all of his heavy weapons.  However, once he began moving up I felt as if I should just hold and fire from cover.  Had I moved up I certainly would have gotten more kills, but would have also sustained more losses.  I'm not sure if it would have balance out for me.  

From this game I learned that I definitely did not have enough  long range heavy weapons to face a battle of attrition like this one was.  It was still fun to play.

Next summary should be up tomorrow and is against 'Nids.  It was also a fun game.

Hobby: Slat Armor for a Leman Russ

So, because I now have a tank hunting squadron of Leman Russ hulled vehicles I decided they will need extra armor.  I have bought the FW extra armor for the Chimera chassis in the past and am really happy with it, but I wanted something different for these tanks.  I decided to go with slat armor, which operated by detonating explosives before they reach the hull of the vehicle and taking away much of their penetrative power.

Below You can see the frame all layed out over a pattern I have made on a sheet of 3x5 card.

Next I added a few vertical supports and glued it all together with plastruct plastic weld.  Really happy with this product for use with plasticard and the like as it actually bonds the materials and won't be anywhere as brittle as super glue for this application.

Next I begin to add the slats.  I used 2 pieces of balsa to give a uniform spacing and a little tub of basing dirt to hold it in place while I laid each slat.

After a little while I had all the slats glued on, so I just had to give them a little time before I trimmed them all up.

He is the final result.  I really like the way it came out and I will definitely go forward with this project.  I will need to buy some more strip styrene in order to finish the other 5 for the squadron.  Will be adding magnets to the hulls so that they are not permanent.  None of the 3 vehicles have sponson weapons, so this was much easier because of that.  It would be possible to do with sponsons though and I think that it would look pretty cool on a Russ with sponsons as well.

I'm going to be adding some plasticard details to the Baneblade I am reworking in the near future.  At the least there will be mud flaps such as the ones on the FW super-heavies.

Thanks for stopping by.

Damaged Goods.

So, I finally received my rulebook today.  Still have not gotten a reply as to why it was late, but that's beside everything.  I was really glad when I heard that it arrived, we were late getting home from out of town and only had time to grab our stuff before disc golf but I grabbed it for the ride over.  When I picked it up I noticed a glaring dent on the lowest edge, so I took a picture before I even opened the wrapper.  There are lots of dents around the edges, and the box was undamaged.  I don't know if they were playing catch with it or what...

There were some on the back too...

If it was not for the folded corner and that big dent I probably would not be complaining.  So not only did I get it late, but it's damaged too.  We'll see what GW has to say when I get a reply.

So far the book is great though, they do a good job of explaining everything, much better than in the past, and everything seems very clearly worded.  The full color pages are nice and the new art was great to see.  Cannot wait to play a few games!

New table, new terrain! [Part 3]

Okay, so we've had these ruins for quite some time, so they are not technically "new" but they will seem like new when I get through with them! Step one is basing them all.  I think we have a total of 12 plastic buildings.  So this will be no small feat.  So we collected most of them here for viewing.

Next we had to cut up the hardboard which was purchased with the rest of the table supplies a while back.  My brother did not come with us today so I was forced to have Andy and Kevin help me maneuver the sheet over the table saw.  As a result, some of the edges are not the straightest possible though they will do fine for terrain.  Kevin also had a knack of pushing the material into the blade and pinching it, of course he would not admit to it.  The problem mysteriously vanished when Andy held the outside edge. Hmm...

Once I had the strips of a couple widths cut I could manage most of the further cutting on my own and measured and cut out the pieces for each building.

The next step was to take the buildings off of their old cardboard bases, clean them up a bit, make any repairs, add any extra details, or anything else that needed to be done.  So in letting Andy use my hobby knife he decided to use it to block a smack for some wise talk.  Absent mindedness is not a good thing when handling sharp objects.  There's a reason I used all the power tools.  So, I get a nice 1 in wide gash in my wrist.

After I tended to my wound I finished what I could on our chapel.  It needs a roof still, and the second layer shall be removable so that the interior can be accessed.  I will probably also make some pews and an altar and such for it.

The buildings got glued down to their new hardboard bases and that was pretty much all the work there was to do.  Of course we had the Stanley Cup game playing on the laptop, if you could call it a game...

So, we finished up with a game of Dust: Warfare.  150 pts Andy vs. I, Axis Vs. Axis.  We played corner deployment, secured area, and the one where you get to the enemy deployment.  In the end it was a draw.  We each killed one enemy unit of Battle Grenadiers with neither of us making the enemy's deployment with any units.  Mostly due to the lines of minefields we laid everywhere.  It was still fun, the fortifications were an interesting addition, and we caught a mistake or so more in how we have been playing.

Next time we're there I will be cleaning all of the buildings, as they are rather dusty.  I will also try to do most, if not all of the groundwork and flocking.  If I have time I will add any extra details and to the base coats of spraypaint.  We'll see.  I think painting all this terrain is going to take even more time than building the table.  I still have other terrain to finish, like the sentinel piece and a ruined land raider.  Some of the older pieces need a retouching as well and we still need more scatter terrain and barricades.  A lot of work to finish, so stay tuned!