A belated Adepticon Overview

Real Life(tm) has been rather hectic of late, and I'm just getting around to posting up the pics and thoughts from Adepticon. Took a while to go through the 200+ pictures I took and discard the 100+ that were blurry junk (I really need to bring a monopod to the shows). In any case, brace yourself for pictures - I'll be putting up some of the better ones here, the link to the full gallery is below!

Day 1 - Horus Heresy, Zone Mortalis games!

 

Sadly, I was so excited to be playing and had such a good time that I neglected to even take any pictures of the first two ZM games I played on Thursday. Suffice it to say they were rather epic! The third game however I remembered to snap some pics as the World Eaters rampaged their way through a bunch of really awesome Squats!

The guys that put on the Heresy campaign events at Adepticon and Nova are absolutely top notch, and always provide some awesome swag. This year was a set of custom dice with the various armor marks as the facings. So cool!

I was honored to be awarded best painted in the ZM event and was blown away by the super cool medal!

Day 2 - Great Crusade Era, Purge the Xenos!

The first of two games in the Great Crusade era setting saw the World Eaters facing off against the Ork hordes. As the greenskins raced across the table to get into combat, the legion dreadclaws began falling from the skies.

Utter carnage ensued, with sweeping casualties across both sides of the table. When the dust cleared the Orks held the field, but only just...

The second game was against the forces of the perfidious Eldar, and the World Eaters felt supremely confident that they would annihilate the pointy-eared gits.

However, perfidy in fact ensued and the Eldar first strike was murderous to the point of absurdity with the World Eaters being washed off the table in a hail of star- and d-cannon fire. Holy cow are 7th ed. Eldar nasty! Was a great game nonetheless, and simply cemented the Eldar as a hated foe for the Legions!

Day 3 - Necromunda!

On Saturday I was rather excited to participate in a Necromunda event that I was initially a bit apprehensive about (it being listed as a 'tournament', not my usual cup of tea), but all fears were assuaged once I met the players and the organizer ran through the rules of the day. Each table had its own special scenario, all of which were rather entertaining. The first game had some spooky events happening and the gangers had to pass cool checks to avoid panicking.

The second game was set in the ash wastes where the Guilders were ambushed by a group of Orlocks. It went poorly for the forces of Count DeMonet, but thematically he used them to save his own corpulent hide as he made his escape!

The third game took place in a railyard with a group of Goliaths looking to raid the caravan, but Mr. Hand's terrifying marksmanship and Brother Hameln's fuzzy army of bomb rats held the slabheads at bay long enough for Count DeMonet to sleaze his way to another day.

I was quite honored to be presented a second best painted award for Count DeMonet's Guilder Caravan and Traveling Show, and am definitely planning on incorporating aspects of the tournament to the upcoming Necromunda campaign I'll be running locally!

There are dozens and dozens of further pictures from the event HERE including a bunch of shots from the armies on parade area which were spectacular this year!All in all it was a fantastic trip, especially knowing I'm not going to be able to attend NOVA this year due to a scheduling conflict. Boo!

Heresy Era World Eaters - The Angriest of Rons

I managed to survive Adepticon and had an absolute blast! Tons of work piled up while I was away however and I haven't had time to upload all the thoughts and pictures from the event. That doesn't mean I haven't gotten any hobby time in though! One of the things I'd picked up in the dealer room while out in Chicago was the primarch of the World Eaters, Angron! I couldn't wait to get stuck in with him, and I had a blast painting him up!

 

 

 In looking at the pictures one always finds things to improve. At this blown-up scale the freehand work is pretty ropy, I'm thinking I need to go back over them with some weathering to cover some of the more egregious sloppy bits and give them a bit more hammered and beaten look, but overall I'm quite pleased with how this mentalist turned out!

Hoping to get a post-adepticon pic dump up soon, turns out I took over 200 pictures so it's taking a bit to go through 'em!

Necromunda - Count DeMonet's Guilder Caravan and Traveling Show ready for Adepticon!

Last finishing touches complete for the Adepticon trip! I gave the event packet a closer read-through and realized my assumptions were a little off for the Necromunda event, and as such I had some extra credits to spend on building out Count DeMonet's Guilder Caravan and Traveling Show. Figured I ought to snap a few pics before they got packed away in the case...

The whole crew ready to made a trip to the Underhive! Really jazzed with how they turned out - While they may not be super effective, they definitely have a ton of character! Played a few more games locally with them to get a better handle on the rules and work out any kinks in the crew list that needed addressing before the event.

Dug up the prior incarnation's cargo skiff/flying carpet and rebased it to act as a gang relic/objective marker should the scenario call for it. Count DeMonet had a few equipment tweaks and now carries a hot-hot laspistol and a stiletto sword cunningly disguised within his walking cane!

Of the two champions, Dr. Whirlygig was pretty much spot-on and has been a stand-out in every scenario he's taken part in. Some combat drugs coupled with the Count's Overseer skill and he's a cavalcade of pain! I did have to build and speed paint a replacement Mr. Hand, as his previous incarnation was carrying way too much superfluous weaponry. The addition of the Mono-sight and a clip harness should keep him well out of harm's way while still blasting opponents with wild abandon.

The husband and wife team of Harry the Hump and Minka the Ninker don't get much glory on the table but they consistently survive the encounters and keep the pressure on their opponents while the more flashy members of the team do the dirty work.

Two new gunslingers were added to the roster each bringing some short ranged but powerful weapons. Biceps McSixpack is a danger to himself and others with his plasma pistol, while Frellin' Tom's hand flamer packs a big template in a small pistol!

Another addition to the crew is the Squat adventurer Stump Chunkman, whose bolter always seems to run out of ammo on the very first pull of the trigger. Luckily he's no slouch with a mallet! The ratskin scout Eats Bad Fungus is a perennial favorite, sneaking up along the sides before blasting away with his shotgun or stealthily skewering sentries as the situation calls for.

Last but not least is Brother Hameln and his bomb rats. Not once has his furry little ordnance managed to do anything but be comic relief, however I just can't help but take him in the list!

Really looking forward to the event at Adepticon, and can't wait to see what other wild and wonderful crews will be taking part!

Necromunda - Ambots painted!

Just a quick hit today - After the flurry of World Eaters and Genestealer Cult, it was time to do something small and colorful. Ambots it is!

As soon as I saw the reveal for these I knew I had to get my mitts on 'em, and I'm glad to say the kit did not disappoint! They are chock full of cool little details and were an absolute blast to paint up.

Decided to do a reversed paint scheme on the pair, one in yellow/red and one in red/yellow. Pretty jazzed with how they turned out, and am quite looking forward to doing another pair. Two is good, that means four is better, right?

Heresy Era World Eaters - Ready for Adepticon!

Coming in just under the wire, Kharn and the 8th Company are ready to deploy to the battlefields of the Schaumburg Sector!

Packed the army up and schlepped it over to the local GW shop for a family photo, and am quite happy with how the force turned out. Pretty infantry heavy, but you can't lop off limbs and take skulls without a whole mess of dudes toting chainaxes, now can you?

In other news, I've been beavering away on a display/carry board for the event. In years past I've been dinged on painting scores because I didn't have a display board, so it was time to recify the situation! I'd picked up a set of terrain tiles from Secret Weapon Miniatures but found that, while they looked cool, on their own they just weren't structurally sound enough to carry the models from place to place (they're very much just table-toppers). Got a buddy of mine who's got the woodworking tools and talents to build me a little hinged frame setup for 'em, and it's going to work a treat!

Ended up adding a little of my own ham-fisted woodworking to create a brace to lock it in an open position with a couple dowel rods and a strip of wood, as I was worried a little bit about it accidentally folding up while moving it about. It's solid as a rock with that addition, and I'm really quite pleased with the end result! I'm scheming on trying to add a little three-dimensionality to it with some magnetized buildings, but I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it off in time for the show. If not, it'll have to do as is - We'll see how it goes!

Heresy Era World Eaters - Dreadnoughts complete!

Huzzah! The last of the models for the Adepticon army are complete and ready to rampage across the battlefields! ...Or more likely be blown to smithereens in turn one, as is often the case with newly-painted models.

Ended up doing two of the dreads in white with blue trim, and one in the reversed scheme of the Warhounds, the earlier name of the legion prior to them reuniting with their primarch. Added in a little warhound symbol on his right breastplate as a nod to the earlier allegiance.

The right arms are magnetized to allow swaps between dual powerfists and the lascannon arrays. Really pleased with how they've turned out and can't wait to get 'em on the tables in just a few short weeks. Looking forward to Adepticon!

Heresy Era World Eaters - Simply Dread-full

With just a few short weeks remaining until Adepticon, I was getting rather antsy about the fact that the trio of dreadnoughts I'd ordered back in January had yet to arrive. They'd been stuck in customs hell for nearly two weeks but were finally deemed not to be a threat to national security and the box arrived looking as though it had spent some time on a 40k battlefield!

With some trepidation I opened the box and was relieved to find everything present and accounted for, with no obvious breakages. Bubble wrap to the rescue!

While I'd ordered up a fair few dreads (some for a few hobby buddies, some for prize support at Adepticon and some for myself) I only pulled and washed the trio immediately needed for the project. The updated kit is tremendous, several new tweaks to the main body and a set of heavy weapons matching the old school look were all much appreciated!

Once they were washed and dried, I got cracking getting 'em built - Went through and magnetized the right arms on all of them to allow for the full gamut of weapon options including a lascannon, missile launcher and conversion beamer! Can't wait to get some paint on 'em, though it's gonna be a challenge getting them primed as it's been well below freezing for the last several weeks here. Oof!

In other news I got cracking on a display board for the force, taking advantage of the sale Secret Weapon Miniatures has been running on their tablescape tiles. While I love the look, I am not convinced that the board is structurally sound enough to use as a carry board between tables, and am looking to mount the board on some MDF for added stability. We'll see how it goes!