Heresy-Era Thousand Sons - Further progress on The Eye Of Magnus

Got a few more pictures of the Falchion class superheavy from Tom McBride aka Machinator - it's really starting to come together!

 

Tom's work is exceeding my expectations in every way, and I have to say that while I enjoy doing scratch buit conversions, his skills with greenstuff, resin and plasticard put my talents to shame. I've quite enjoyed seeing it come together and I've been going over the pictures to learn some of his techniques.

I think my Sabre Tank Hunter is going to be experiencing cannon envy!

Tom has been adding some really nice touches to the tank such as the runic script along the side skirts. One side reads "The Eye Of Magnus" while the other reads "The Thousand Sons". It's little details like this that really give the vehicle personality. I'm really excited to see the finished build and get my hands on it to paint it up!

Tom does a whole series of resin-cast upgrades for the Baneblade kits that are simply spectacular. I heartily recommend taking a look through his eBay shop here for inspiration if you're interested in building your own custom super heavy tanks! He also takes commission work and I have to say he's been an absolute pleasure to do business with. Thanks Tom!

The Kabal of the Crimson Woe - Complete!

After far too much procrastination, I'm happy to say the Kabal of the Crimson Woe is finally finished!

I'm fairly pleased with how they turned out - it's a nice little raiding force that exemplifies the Dark Eldar's swift and merciless way of war.

  

Here's a series of pics that are a bit more zoomed in. The entire army can start the game either in transports or lurking in reserve.

 

The last things awaiting paint were the various transports for the army. First up, the Crimson King's Raider. For the two Archons I went with dual sails to represent the Enhanced Aethersails upgrades and to help them stand out as the HQ transports.

 

The second Raider belongs to Duke Harkanet the Golden, and his Incubi bodyguard. As their armor is all heavily gold, I figured their transport should be similarly themed.

 

Next up is the custom Venom I'd built when the codex first came out. It transports the Kabalite Trueborn into battle.

 

Finally are the two Raiders for the Wyches and Warriors. These tow are significantly less blinged out to represent the lower caste of the troops they transport.

All in all I'm quite relieved to be done with the army - while I enjoyed the different play style the Dark Eldar bring to the table, I can't say that they particularly suit my disposition. I much prefer the sledgehammer of the Guard! I'll be putting them up on the auction block in due course, once I get one last game in with them. I always enjoy playing a game with a completely-painted army!

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year!

Heresy Era Thousand Sons - Sabre Complete, and Falchion started!

Greetings and salutations everyone - hope that the holidays have been treating you well! I'd like to start of today with a link to my friend's Blood Angel blog Ex Fide Vivo - after a long hiatus he's finally began painting again, and is jumping back in with a vengeance. Definitely worth a look if you're a fan of the Sons of Sanguinius!

I've had a few days off from work which has been spent painting. Lots of Datk Eldar and Thousand Sons in the queue of late, today's post is all about the big guns for the Thousand Sons. I'd picked up a resin upgrade kit for a Sabre Tank Hunter a while back and finally managed to get it finished up:

 

It's been too cold out to seal anything of late, so I may still go back in and add a few more details here and there as time allows. Moving on however, I thought I'd share the initial pictures of its big brother, the Falchion-class superheavy tank "The Eye of Magnus" that I've commissioned from the amazing Tom McBride aka Machinator (who is the designer behind most of the Rhino variants that I'm using for the army)...

 

The Falchion is the Heresy Era marine equivalent of the Shadowsword - obviously these are pictures in the very early stages of construction, but I have to say I'm giddy as a schoolboy to see it come together!

 

I'm really excited to see how it turns out, and very eager to get my hands on it once it's done to get it painted. I'll be sharing more pics as it progresses - More shots of the various Superheavy variants that Machinator has created over the years may be found at the Apocalypse 40k forums here. Definitely worth checking out!

The Kabal of the Crimson Woe - Reaver Jetbikes complete

Hope everyone is having a happy holiday! These last few months have been just hectic as all get-out so I haven't had much time to paint, but with a little holiday break I was able to finish off a few models...

Up today are the last of the small models for the Dark Eldar army I'm struggling to finish - a half dozen Reaver jetbikes. For ease of identification on the tabletop, the two bikes armed with Heat Lances were given a white stripe down the fuselage. I really like the new models, they really have a sense of speed and lethality. In point of fact, I stabbed myself good a few times on the little spiky bits while painting them, gotta have a little blood sacrifice to Khaine, I suppose!

Once they were done I turned my attention to a few Thousand Sons vehicles, pics to follow!

Have a great holiday and a happy New Year, everyone!

Not all that quiet on the western front

Apologies for the lack of posts of late, it's been a rather interesting couple of weeks out this way. Due to a combination of severely icy conditions, rather bald tires and lack of talent on my part I managed to put my car in the ditch and ended up having to lay out some significant cash to rectify the situation. No injuries sustained, other than the sharp stabbing pain in my wallet. Unfortunately that means the plans I had for the trip to England coming up in March were put into financial peril, so I've been casting about the Closet of Doom for some things to put up on the ol' auction block.

It's not all bad news though - In my other life as a bassist, over the last month my band has been working on getting our first CD finished up which has been a great deal of fun. While not strictly 40k related, it is another hobby of mine - If you're interested in some free music, you can check out the penultimate cuts here. Still a bit left to do to clean them up, but hey, free music!

Anyway - back to the 40k side of things. Much as I hate to have to do so, I am putting up a selection of flyers that I've built and painted over the years, which can be seen on eBay here.

First up is the Vulture Gunship...

Followed by an Aquila Lander...

A Thunderbolt Heavy Fighter...

...And last but not least, an Inquisitorial Stormraven Gunship.

I'm also in the final stages of finishing off the Dark Eldar army I've been procrastinating on - blog post to follow. I'm bummed to have to sell these models off, but needs must when finances dictate I suppose...

Mordian 7th - 5th Platoon Rough Riders complete!

Happy Thanksgiving to those readers in the States today - among other things, I'm quite thankful for having the day off! Not having to go in to work at 6 in the morning, and having no other pressing demands (hooray!), I was able to finish off the Rough Riders this morning!

The Mordian 7th originally included an entire platoon of Rough Riders, let by Captain Hilts. While on extended recon patrol on Flotis III, the vast majority of the units horses were stolen (and presumably eaten) during a daring raid by Ork Kommandos. Captain Hilts led his men in a attempt to rendezvous with the rest of the regiment, afoot through Ork-held territory. Over two thirds of the unit were slain en-route by harassing attacks by Evil Sunz Speedfreeks, and Captain Hilts himself was savagely wounded after being set afire by an Ork Skorcha. Vowing to kill the Orks responsible and 'give them a taste of their own medicine', Captain Hilts requisitioned a number of bikes and several flamers, declaring he would forgo the stealth and range provided by riding horseback to the savagery and fire that he and his unit had experienced at the hands of the Orks. Captain Hilts generally hides his burned face behind a combination hood and rebreather, giving him a rather unsettling appearance. His hatred for Orks knows no bounds, though it's whispered among other units in the 7th that Hilts is every bit the savage now as any Ork, and that the 'breathing canisters' he uses contain not only oxygen, but Frenzon or some other combat drug..

I was worried that as all the bikes are identical, the whole unit would end up looking a bit monotonous, so I really tried to ensure the torso and arms for each model was significantly different. Overall I think it gives the unit a sense of motion and vibrancy.

The unit was designed such that it could be used as two 5-man units. The first half includes the standard lance-armed models and a sergeant...

...while the other half includes all the specialty models. A pair of flamers gives the unit a bit more anti-horde, while the other two models simply count as lance-armed guardsmen (well, discarding the remains of a lance in the case of the fellow on the far right). The masked man in the middle of the picture represents Captain Hilts, with his various tanks of combat drugs and an Ork Choppa. On the tabletop I plan to use him as a counts-as Mogul Kamir.

Another unit complete, and the Mordian 7th Painting Chart is turning green! Not looking forward to tackling the 35 infantry models in the 1st platoon, though. Oof.

Mordian 7th - 5th Platoon Rough Riders in progress

With a bit of a holiday weekend ahead I'm planning on finishing off the unit of Rough Riders that I pulled out for the Cavember contest that Col. Gravis is holding. It's been crazy with work of late, so I've only managed to block in the basic colors thus far - but hey, a little progress is better than no progress at all!

Now that there's a bit of paint on, it's easier to point out what all is in the unit. For special weapons, I went with a pair of flamers, and added enough lance-armed models to drive home the idea that the unit is armed with Hunting Lances. The unit is led by a counts-as Mogul Kamir, but I have included a chainsword-armed model as well to act as a normal sergeant for smaller games. The unit also includes a standard, though much like the one in the veterans squad, it's just there for flavor and has no in-game effect. In the original Mordian 7th, there was an entire platoon of Rough Riders, including a mounted command squad, so in this incarnation I'm going with these are the last remnants of the platoon, and one of the men has managed to keep the standard aloft throughout their winnowing.

With a couple days off coming up, I'm quite confident that I'll be able to get them done in time for the deadline!

Cavember Painting Contest Expanded!

Col. Gravis is having a painting contest centering around Rough Riders based on a post from the excellent Col. Ackland regarding what he's calling Cavember - originally it was centered around Praetorian Rough Riders in particular, as Col. Gravis makes some spectacular kits for the army. I'm a huge fan of both the Praetorians and Rough Riders in general, so I have been excited to see the various renditions folks come up with. Recently however, he's opened the contest up to Rough Riders of any regiment which has given me some impetus to get a little more work done on my own Mordian 7th!

I've included a unit of Rough Riders in every incarnation of the glorious 7th that I've done all the way back to the RT era. I started off using the original Imperial Guard Rough Riders on horseback, though in recent years I've gone for a Mechanized Rough Rider on motorbikes instead. The unit above was from my 3rd-4th edition days, and were made from a combination of the old Dark Eldar jetbikes and various bits taken from the Imperial Guard Heavy Weapons sprues. The original how-to was on the GW site yoinks ago in the "Dok Butcha's Konvershun Klinic" articles they used to do. I posted a walk-through on their construction a while back here as well...

My previous version in 5th edition utilized the fantastic bikes available from Ramshackle Games and the unit I'm going to be painting up is built using much the same process as those shown above.

At the moment they're just assembled and primered, so they aren't all that photogenic thus far. With the contest just being opened up to a wider audience I've got my work cut out for me - only 12 days to go before the deadline, and with a full 10-strong unit I'd better get cracking!

Battle Report - Dark Eldar vs. Blood Angels

Haven't had a lot of hobby time of late, and as such I haven't had much in the way of interesting pictures to share. Time to remedy that with a whole MESS of pictures from a test game a friend of mine and I played in preparation for the Tempus Fugitives event coming up in March!

Skyhook Playtest Series, Game 1: Blood Angels vs. Dark Eldar - 1000 points, Annihilation

After collecting PalpaDave, he laid out his force:

The army stayed there for longer than I expected!

DEPLOYMENT

We went with the standard halved table setup and the Annihilation type, and rolled off. Dave won the roll and the Blood Angels chose to go second.

The Dark Eldar deployed the Venom and Jetbikes on the left flank:

While the Raider and Hellions took up station in the middle of the DE deployment zone:

The Blood Angels deployed... Nothing! As his entire force was capable of Deep Strike, that ended the segment.

TURN ONE

The Dark Eldar don't move.

The Blood Angels cannot yet arrive.

TURN TWO

The Dark Eldar don't move.

...A tumbleweed rolls by.

With a roar, the two Blood Angel assault squads arrive, and the Dark Eldar were so dismissive of the event at this point that I apparently failed to take a picture of it. The two squads arrive roughly a quarter of the way in from each short table edge, roughly at the centerline of the table.

The foolish Mon-keigh deployed outside their effective weapons range and turn two ends. Elapsed time from the end of deployment: about three minutes.

TURN THREE

The Dark Eldar pounce on the Assault squad on the left flank, while the Raider and Hellions also swing out to the left to assist. A volley of splinter weapons accounted for a fair number of assault marines, though not enough to break their resolve.

This left the second assault squad rather far out of position, though being jump infantry the dark kin knew they wouldn't be out of the action for long.

The Blood Angels responded by destroying the Venom with a volley of Melta fire. The Crimson King and his unit dismissively rode out the blast, and accepted the charge of the assault marines. A furious melee ensued, with the preternaturally fast Archon laying out a number of marines with his Agonizer. The Blood Angels retaliation slew the Trueborn, leaving only the Crimson King and his Haemunculus,

On the right flank, the second Assault squad bounded forward, and turn three drew to a close.

TURN FOUR

The Raider and Hellions move in to assist the Crimson King while the Reaver jetbikes arrow off to attack Captain Furioso, and with contemtuous ease, the Crimson King slaughters a further four marines, with their return attacks nullified by a combination of eldritch techno sorcery and frightful bio-engineering. The Blood Angels grimly fight on.

In the Blood Angels phase however, the tables suddenly turned! A lucky strike by Perada was not intercepted by the Crimson King's shadowfield, and he was skeyered by the Blood Angel's relic blade.

At the same time, it became apparent that the Reavers had sorely misjudged the effective threat range of Captain Furioso. Fully half the squad was snatched from the air and crushed into scrap by the Captain's power fists, and his ceramite battle plate and martial skill was proof against the vile Xenos' counterattack.

The second Assault squad continued its advance, and turn four came to an end.

TURN FIVE

The Haemonculus' lashed out with his Huskblade and the true nature of the Dark Eldar's reality-bending technology became apparent:

...And from another angle.

Unfortunately the sole hit was taken by the remaining assault marine, leaving Perada unharmed. The Haemonculus was wounded in the melee, but wasn't out of the fight yet!

The Reavers proved completly ineffectual and were destroyed with contemptuous ease by Captain Furioso.

The Hellions and Kabalite warriors aboard the Raider unleased a flurry of shots from their splinter Weaponry, but only managed a bare handful of casualties. The Hellions arrogantly assaulted the second squad, but while they were able to account for a number of the marines they were badly mauled by the marines' retaliation. The sole survivor peeled off, easily outrunning the sweeping advance.

In the Blood Angels phase, the duel continued between Perada and the Haemonculus, with neither side able to gain the upper hand. Captain Furioso was moving in to support however...

The second Assault squad shot the Raider out of the sky, the Dark Eldar dismounting and landing lightly on their feet. With that, turn five drew to a close.

We rolled to see if there would be further turns, but the dice said there was not, and the game ended. We tallied up the Victory Points and the Blood Angels won, 32 to 13.

The battle was really quick and quite a lot of fun. Both armies were designed to avoid the Unstable Footing rules, so at any given time, the Dark Eldar were only rolling two or three dice for the archon and haemonculus at the beginning of a couple turns. The Kabalite Warriors would have had to roll had there been a turn six. Overall, a very enjoyable experience - a nice quick 1000 point game was just the thing to take the edge off a challenging stretch at work!