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!

BFG: Imperial Navy Reinforcements

So, the first post of the new year.  Happy 2015, even if I am a bit late on that.  As usual it's been far too long since my last post.  Though, I assure you, I have been busy on the hobby front.  I've been painting models from the whole spectrum of my collections.  I spent a good few hours taking photographs and editing them this week to try and pick up the blog slack.  I've got photos for about 11 posts all up and edited on flickr.  So I will probably write a few posts and then set them to auto publish some time in the future.  This will grant the illusion that I am actively updating this blog.  

Now the reason anyone is here, for pictures.  Well one picture.  These are a pair of Imperial Cruisers I painted up several months ago now.  They are both magnetized to be any of the cruiser variants.  For these two ships I tried a new technique in painting these ships.  Instead of picking out different details with different shades I decided to go with a drybrush and wash method.  I am pretty happy with how this worked.  It seems to look better than how I used to paint them.  Some other changes made are the addition of some markings, namely the stripe on the lower fin of one and on the weapons batteries of the other.  I've named these two cruisers Jovian Spear (left) and Infinity (right).

Hope you enjoy the new look of the ships, just trying to keep this game alive for as long as possible.  I still have plenty of these ships to build and paint since I stocked up right at the end, so don't worry about not having any more BFG to see from me.

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.

The Knights of the Order of Thanatos

Yet again I have to introduce a post after such a long hiatus from the blog.  It's been quite a while since I have updated this blog with the idea of re-shooting my model collection.  That has not happened, but I have not been idle.  As I mentioned back then I did repaint my Baneblade, Zeal, though I failed to take any pictures until today.  In the meantime the release of the Imperial Knight kit by Games Workshop really got me fired up and into painting mode.  My friend Kevin and I immediately decided to order some of them and I would paint them to match.  We've always wanted to start a Titan Legion, but have never spent the cash, so this was a pretty awesome second chance.  We each ordered a Knight and I also ordered a Dreamforge Leviathan, not knowing it would be far too large to join our Knightly Order and will instead he the founding member of a Titan Legion.  In exchange for painting his Knight, Kevin paid for some of my order and also got the expanded decal set.  Three months later and I have finally kept up my end of the bargain and finished the Knights.  Not for lack of effort though as April was the only month I really did not work on them.  But we are going to have an Apocalypse game soon and I really wanted to have them done for that, even if they will be on opposite sides of the conflict.

Without anymore senseless blather, here they are, face to face, ready to fight.

The Imperial Knight is a really fantastic kit and a dream to build and paint.  The only thing I would ask for is a bit more freedom in the legs.

More after the break.

Litany of Hate

My latest project is complete.  My brother bought this Modified Ryza Patter Vanquisher turret from FW last year and I bought the hull from a friend who was selling off his guard army.  As with most of my vehicles throughout the years I added another step or process in painting this one.  On the one side, it means this tank looks better than those which came before, on the other side, it means most of my tanks look slightly different.  The turret is where my new techniques which were mentioned last post can really be seen, as the hull's lines were muddled my old paint which I could not get to come off.

Now, with what I learned on this tank I can make my next one look better, hopefully.  All of the filters and washes and such dulled out the modulation a bit more than I expected them to, so next time I will probably make the bright tone a little lighter.

Here it is, the Leman Russ Vanquisher Litany of Hate:

They see me rollin, they dying.

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.

MURDER: INITIATE!

I don't really care for Ogyrns, I mean sure they endearingly stupid and naive but they're abhumans.  So, here's my solution so that I can use Ogyrns in my army; Mechanicus constructed Murder Servitors.  They're big, they're mean, they have guns for hands.  I built these guys a while back (over a year ago I think) and I finally got around to painting them thanks to an ongoing challenge.  My friend Kevin and I have agreed to paint 1 unit a week for the foreseeable future, barring and sickness or vacations.  If one of us fails to complete something in a given week, then we owe the other $20.  The first week I painted my Recon Grenadiers and he finished his Cygnar Stormwall.  Last week he painted his Mordhiem Warband and I started these guys.  I did not get too much done and wound up owing him 20 bucks.  This week I spent 4 nights working on these guys and finished them!

Here they are ready to murder your troops!

All that skin and muscle detail is the reason they took so long, I will say that I would never want to paint an Ogre army...

That's it for now, next week I am going to try and paint my rebuilt Mordhiem warband.  Last time I used Empre State Troops. I wanted a grittier look so I have remade them using Empire Militia and Empire Greatswords.  I am very pleased with how they turned out.

Stay tuned!

New table, new terrain! [Part 9]

Just a small update today.  I have not been doing much of anything on the hobby front for the last 2 weeks.  Tomorrow there is a tournament in Rochester though, so I am excited about that.  It should get me rolling again.

Here's the building I painted at our last game night.  It's a small mechanicus building.  It was built from spare parts by Kevin and has been known as the "Minifactorum" for years now. Glad to finally see it painted!

Here's a shot of the inside.

Gonna take my camera to the tournament and take lots of pictures (if I remember to) so expect some battle reports over the next week or so.  Probably going to pick up some more models for Dust: Warfare  so I should have an update for that game coming too.  I have actually painted quite a few units, but I have not come up with a basing scheme yet, so I have not photographed them.

Rough Rider

Here's a little post of a bit of converting I have been up to.  This is my first Rough Rider of what will be a  squad of 10.  Last month I bought a 10 man Cadian squad and 2 sets of Medieval horses from GW.  I started out by picking the set of legs that was closest to working, then I had to do a lot of cutting and shaving to get them to fit.

Here you can really see all of the material I had to remove.

Then, I had to fill a lot back in with green stuff.  While that was still pliable I started on the torso because I also had to sculpt the hand holding the lance.  I filled in around the neck and all seams on the horse as well.

For the lance tips my brother gave me a bunch of skeleton spears and I took the plainer looking type to use. Much more imposing with a spear tip on there.

Behind the point I added a small box with a light and a wire leading to the point.

That's all on these for now since I do not want to repose and sculpt all of the legs I will be casting copies of this sculpt to use for all of them.  Just ordered some silicon and resin to do so, should have it soon.  I will also make a mold of some of the BFG stuff I have scratched.

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!

Dust Warfare: The First Fight

The following is a recap of my first game of Dust Warfare.  It was my Axis against Kevin's Allies.  We played 150pts.

Our lists were as follows:
Axis Sturmgrenadiere Platoon

Command Section: Kommandotrupp
1st Section: Battle Grenadiers
2nd Section: Battle Grenadiers
3rd Section: Heavy Recon Grenadiers
4th Section: Laser Grenadiers
Support Section:  "Luther" Medium Panzer Walker

Allied Combat Platoon

Command Section: Ranger Command Squad "The Boss"
1st Section: Combat Rangers Squad "The Gunners"
2nd Section: Combat Rangers Squad "The Gunners"
3rd Section: Assault Rangers Squad "BBQ Squad"
4th Section: Heavy Ranger Tank Hunter Squad "Tank Busters"
Support Section: Medium Combat Walker M2-A"Mickey"

We decided to use the table to make our mission as opposed to using one of the pre-built missions.  If we're going to try out this game, we're going to try out everything.  Going through this process we came up with the deployment type "Close Engagement" with the objective "Eliminate the Enemy" and no special conditions. We deployed between 6 and 18 inches from our respective board edges and rolled to see who would go first.  I ended up with 2 hits and Kevin with 3.  So I started the game with 2 orders.  Here is our deployment.  Not having much idea how this was all going to work out, or how to play the army we both started with pretty much everything in cover and mostly out of range.

For my command phase I gave a Blitzkrieg order to the Battle grenadiers by the bunker and advanced them behind the laser grenadiers.  I have my command squad move up as well and they get a reaction token.  Not knowing too much since I did not have the rules to review I placed my command poorly and not all of my units fall within its influence.  Oh well.  Another he

I missed a picture here for Kevin's command phase.  He had three orders.  The first he uses to try and call a "Long Tom" Artillery strike against my command squad (because it contained my painted officer).  It missed.    
The last was used on the Mickey to take a shot at my Luther, he missed.

In my combat phase I advanced the Blitzkrieging Grenadiers to behind bunker I and shot my Panzerfausts and Panzershreck at the Mickey.  The Panzershreck scores a hit and does 2 damage!  Causing an external fire.  Next I move up the Heavy Recon Grenadiers towards the bottom of the screen.  They fire at the BBQ squad in the emplacement there and manage to kill 3 of the 5. I then move up the Laser Grenadiers and fire at the Ranger squad below the Mickey.  They manage to Kill 1.  The Luther Shoots at the Mickey but misses.  The second Grenadier Squad moves forward 3".

Kevin begins his turn by taking out some hardcore vengeance on my Grenadiers which shot his Mickey.  His command squad shoots at them and takes three of 'em out.  The Mickey puts out the fire.  The Ranger squad near it removes a suppression marker and shoots at the Laser Grenadiers with their UGLs and rifles, they fail to cause any kills.  The Tank Busters fly out to behind the wrecked scout car and blow up my Heavy Recon Grenadiers.   This leaves the remaining infantry with nothing to shoot at.

This initiative phase I roll 2 hits and Kevin 1.  He gets to go first.  He again attempts to Long Tom my HQ, this time he succeeds.  The strike takes out one of my Kommadotrupp.  It also hits against the Grenadiers near Bunker I and suppresses them.  I Blitzkrieg order the Panzershreck to take another shot at the Mickey, it misses.  I then order the Laser Grenadiers to shoot at the nearest Combat Rangers and manage to pick one more of them off.
The Combat Phase brings me more pain.  The Mickey begins shooting at my command squad killing another member.  His HQ finished off my Battle Grenadiers near bunker I as well.  I lose a Laser Grenadier to the Ranger Squad they just shot at.  Worst of all the Tank Buster roll up and destroy my Luther with a single salvo!

My combat phase is pretty uneventful as the tide has really gone against me now.  My Laser Grenadiers manage to pick off a single Ranger.

Turn 3 sees Kevin and I both roll 2 hits and so we reroll and I get a 1 to his 2.  I use my one order to have the Laser Grenadiers Blitzkrieg and shoot at the Rangers again.  They manage to pick off 2 more.  Kevin calls in a Long Tom strike on my Grenadiers near the Luther Wreck and kills 1.  His other order is used on the Mickey which continues to pummel my HQ. Leaving only my Radio guy alive.  The autumn cover of his helm blended in with the blood of his fallen comrades.  Really it's because the Mickey did not have LOS to him and you can't kill what you can't see.
The combat phase sees the Laser Grenadiers kill another Ranger, leaving one alive.  I move the remaining Battle Grenadier squad back into cover.  Kevin makes a general advance.  The lone Ranger is suppressed enough that he is forced to fall back.  The BBQers move up and smoke a Laser Grenadier and the Tank Busters enter close combat with my Battle Grenadiers.

 
Turn 4 and I am all "Game over man!"
The fight must go on until the last man has fallen though.  So we roll for initiative.  I roll no hits and Kevin gets 1.  My order is spent telling command that the Obereutnant is dead and the radio man is in command.  Kevin calls in the Long Toms on my Battle Grenadiers but it does no harm this time.

Combat phase sees kill a single Tank buster as I move out of combat and not much of anything else as I try and hold in cover and just survive a little longer.  Kevin takes the laser Grenadiers down to 1 man with the BBQ squad.

Turn 5 and Kevin rolls 1 to my none.  I Blitzkrieg my radio man to the back of Bunker II.  Kevin Long Toms the Grenadiers.  Combat phase sees me shoot my radio man at the Tank Busters and try to Laser a BBQer.  It also sees Kevin wipe the Axis forces from the table and sweep on to victory.

So, that's that.  I lost this game of "Dust Warfare"  but that's not to say I did not enjoy it.  It's rather fun and I enjoy it more than I did Warmachine.  Here's a list of some things I liked and did not like.

Pros:
-Can be played rather quickly at this point level if you are more familiar with the rules than we are.
-The hit system simplifies shooting and helps speed things up
-I like the phases and rolling for initiative each turn.
-The allied and axis special orders Long Tom and Blitz Krieg seem to be balanced. With the arty strike having great reach and firepower, but Blitzkrieg allowing you to really put a good unit to extra use at a key point in the game.
-Pretty cheap to get into.


Cons:
-Cover feels a bit wonky to me.
-There's no such thing as durability, things die pretty easy.
-Warfare should have unit cards.
-Moving only 3 inches in terrain is rough.

Overall I had a positive experience and we have ordered the started set for yet more models, expect a table update and another Dust Battle next week.  I did work on the table last Sunday, but it was mostly just spraying on a several coats of clearcoat to protect it during use.  Not very post worthy.  I also had to fix the water, but you can see that next time.  Also look for a post on some more painted Dust models!