Bori the Bloody (Part 1)

Primed and ready.

I had a creative itch the other day. And with a dash of boldness as well. I decided I wanted a khorne specific Daemon Prince, but with my current situation I don't have the disposable income to just go get one. But then I remembered I had a bunch of left over plastic and metal daemon prince parts. So this, kind of stupid, yet also kind of cool, idea was born. 

As I started to tinker away with the assorted parts it became obvious that the most necessary part I lacked was a complete torso, either in metal or in plastic. But I did have the front pieces in plastic.  But I had plenty of other junk that I  might be able to use and fake the rest of it with greenstuff. 

Fitting the bits. 

The growth spurt between the late '90s metal Daemon Prince and the plastic one from last decade is very much apparent. But I had this idea that he was like an old cartoon caricature of a tough guy,: all shoulder and chest and puny legs. Not too physcially different from an ork nob in that respects. 

I scrapped away on the front of the torso so it would join up better with the metal legs. Afterwards I glued the arms to the torso front piece. Slowly my 3-D puzzle was coming together. But I found that it was necessary to pin the plastic torso to the metal legs for added strength. 

Pinned.

Next came the big glob of greenstuff. I applied layers of muscle to the back and tried to get the  back to conform to the front. My lack of skill with sculpting is quite obvious here, but what I did accomplish I can live with. 

Baby's got back. 

I hid the most egregious errors along the belt line with trophy skulls and a marine helm. And I added a plastic cloth to cover up the tail hole, since I didn't have a tail available to fill in that gap.  Finally I glued this monster to his base and left him propped up on some paint pots for a few hours so the glue could dry and to allow the green stuff to cure more. 

Drying.

After that I sprinkled on some grit to the base. After that dried I took him out with some of his friends  (you'll see them in a future post) for a priming party. Which is the state he is in in the first pic of this post. 

I shared the above pic with some of the guys in our text group and I stated how I was going for the big bruiser with the little legs vibe. Screech responded with this image ( below), which hilariously captures the exact vibe I was going for even though I hadn't thought about this at all during the modeling process (I was thinking about some tough cats from old Tom and Jerry cartoons). He's even got a skull belt buckle! 

"Never bet on Satan!"

Genestealer Brood #2 (Part 1)

 I did not need to build these guys. I have a lot of Genestealers, more than I can currently field in a game, but I wanted a unit that looked very different from the other painted unit. The first unit, or if you prefer brood, that I painted started off life as a kill team intended to be used in one of the older iterations of the Kill Team game. But this brood I wanted to build using the scything talons and extended carapace, two options and biomorphs that have been saddly dropped from their rules. 

The brood of 8. 

Just like the last two batches of termagants, I painted these up to a battle-ready standard as I don't currently want to invest the time in them to get them up to my parade-ready standard. I will in time, just not yet. I did this by using mostly Contrast Paint with exception to just the extended carapace which was basecoated using Abaddon Black. 

I wanted these guys to look like the hivemind was actively adapting with guys, thus the variety of biomorphs and strange heads. Even though the game hardly supports these concepts on the tabletop. 

The first half of these guys I put together using their basic hands, as that's traditionally how they're built. However the assembly instructions that I got showed them using  the clawed hands with the scytjing talons that I thought looked really dynamic. So I built the second half using that look. 

Those of you that can count will have no doubt noticed that this is just a brood of eight models and Genestealers are now fielded in units of 5 - 10 models. I have one finished model that will join with these fiends, despite his lack of biomorphs. The poor guy has been through hell since he was first finished so it will be nice to give him some chums to run with. I just need to find one more model of this style genestealer purestrain to complete the brood...

Blood Axe Kaptin (Part 1)

Here's a miniature I have been procrastinating on for.... gosh, make that two decades now! This is the first of the big Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition era Ork Warbosses which came out in the summer of 1999.  I liked him, but he didn't quite suit the Goffs whom I was running at the time. In fact when the 2nd version (the one with the attack squig arm) came out, that was the model I decided I wanted to build first. And this poor guy just sat in his opened blister pack bidding his time. 

Waaagh?

At some point I decided to make him a Blood Axe Warboss. This was mostly on account of that big axe of his. Seemed obvious to me that a Blood Axe guy would be obsessed with big axes, right?  But he needed something but I didn't know what...

Oy, me 'ead's cold!

And one day,, like a bolt out of the blue,  Warhammer Community came to the rescue with an article about Bad Krumpany. I was totally inspired by the Ork Warboss Wade Price made for his Blood Axe Army, and I had to seek out that hat for my guy.  He had the perfect head for it too. After some scouring of bits sites online I managed to locate it. It's part of the Nork Deddog options from the Ogryn plastic kit, a Vox caster with a skull wearing a Commissar hat. 

Da Boss hat.

Having acquired this bit, I set about carving off the skull and speaker stuff to leave just the cap. Then I worked on hollowing out the hat enough for it to fit on the Warboss' domed head. 

Assembled! 

Next I primed him using an Olive Drab spray paint. It's not the best coverage job I've ever done,  but I got the areas I needed to. 

Primed!

Onto the basecoats. I used Caliban Green for the flesh base, and picked out the metal areas and boots using Abaddon Black. The interior mouth area and the wrap on the axe handle was based with Khorne Red. There are more details to pick out but I will deal with those as I proceed with the paint job

Basecoats! 

Onto the mid-coats! Yeah I was going to save this for Part 2, but I'm eager to share the progress. So I touched up all the areas. Then I washed all the recess areas if the olive drab with Agrax Earthshade. Then I used Gretchin Green Foundation Paint on the skin. Ontop of the Caliban Green, it gives the Warboss a weird pale look. It's almost freaky, especially with the  brown teeth. 

Gretchin Green flesh layer. 

I was really tempted to leave the axe Olive Drab colored but I decided that a Blood Axe Boss should be carrying a blood red axe. Also, It contrasts well with all the shades of green that the rest of this model is mostly going to be. I might put some Olive Drab back on the gun, but I'm not there yet.. 

Ok, let's stop here. I am excited to be  painting this guy, and I hope to get him done soon. We'll see in Part 2. 

Blood Axe Boyz ( Part 5)

Alright, here are eight more Boyz completed for Drab Squad. (I'm saving the Nob for last). It's been a long road for these guys (even longer when one factors in their age!) but we have arrived to their completion. 

At the time of this writing we are still in the first year of Warhammer 40,000 10th edition and it looks like my battalion plan for my Orks is pretty much still functional. So I will continue to develop my Bad Moons, Goff and Blood Axes. The Blood Axes are still going to mostly, and almost exclusively, use older miniatures. In fact I think they'll be all metal by the time they're finally done. 

But let's talk about these guys. This first one is a plasma gunner. Not sure what he'll count as in game since the Orks lost their plasma weapons way back in 3rd edition. 

This guy's has the least amount of olive drab on him as he has the most metal of leather jackets. He is also the only one I could squeeze a Blood Axe icon onto. In this case I imagined it as a back patch. I did this by hand; not sure if I like the results but I think it'll do. 

This guy has a visor in his helm. Definitely a look that never made it out of the early days of Rogue Trader. I like to think it's part of welding mask incorporated into his armor. 

I put a beaky helmet on the base of this guy. Of course I had to paint it in Ultramarines colors as the only beakies that my old Orks consistently fought against were my brother's old Ultramarines. 

This guy with the foreign legion hat has a Dark Eldar helm on his base. Painted in my favorite kabal colors of course, that of the Obsidian Rose. 

It was also kind of cool to see belts of bullets all over this guy that were actually scaled to look like normal bullets. 

Here's the second of the visor guys. He is distinguished by the rocks on his base. His foot was bent in an odd way so instead of trying to bend it back I just stuck a rock under it to give the impression that he might be walking over it. 

The next two Boyz are extremely basic. I painted their boots in different colors to make it easier to tell them apart. 

And the brown shoes guy has a skull on his base for a bit more distinction. 

Here is a heavy plasma gunner ork. I love how crude and cobbled together this thing appears. I still think orks should've kept their access to plasma weapons in the game but with the provision that they could only shoot on the maximal setting with the required 'gets hot' test.

How is that not orky?!

Either way,  I like the idea that the Blood Axes have tankers full of olive drab paint that they spray all over everything (kind of like what the U.S. military used to do back in 1970s. Everything on the bases I spent my youth on was olive drab. Well until they fell in love with cammo in the mid-80s. But I digress). Thus even pieces of equipment such as this heavy plasma gun just has to be olive drab. 

This grinning guy is the last of the lot. Again, more of his gear is olive drab than not. -As it should be! 

Ok, as I stated at the start,  only the nob is left for this unit. Look for him in a future post. 

Shenanigan BS

 

"Shenanigans here, Shenanigans there, Shenanigans everywhere!"

Welcome back! Still being out of work due to Doctor's orders, I have had more opportunities to play Warhammer 40,000 lately. And in this opportunity I was able to arrange a game with Screech who I've not played a game with in a very long time! And with him moving away soon to a promising future, we had to capitalize on this opportunity to play. So we met at The Outpost and mustered our forces. 

Fresh from their tangle with the Tyranids they felt like hunting xenos of a more techno nature. Truth is, I wanted to play the Ultramarines (it was March for Macrage month after all) but I just wasn't able to get them to a playable and transportable state. So these gluttons for punishment volunteered their services. It's the same list I used against the Tyranids, but with a Librarian and a Landraider added on (ignore the Venerable Dreadnought, he was just there to offer his insight and advice). 

1300 points of Deathwatch. 

Screech produced his Necrons, who were optimized for maximum death.

In fact, here's the full roster*:

Ahrancris Patrol (1300 points)

Necrons

Strike Force (2000 points)

Awakened Dynasty

CHARACTERS

Orikan the Diviner (80 points)

  • Warlord

  • 1x Staff of Tomorrow

Plasmancer (75 points)

  • 1x Plasmic lance

  • Enhancement: Veil of Darkness

Technomancer (80 points)

  • 1x Staff of light

  • Enhancement: Nether-realm Casket

BATTLELINE

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

Immortals (140 points)

  • 10x Immortal

    • 10x Close combat weapon

      10x Tesla carbine

OTHER DATASHEETS

Canoptek Doomstalker (135 points)

  • 1x Doomsday blaster

    1x Doomstalker limbs

    1x Twin gauss flayer

Canoptek Doomstalker (135 points)

  • 1x Doomsday blaster

    1x Doomstalker limbs

    1x Twin gauss flayer

Canoptek Reanimator (75 points)

  • 2x Atomiser beam

    1x Reanimator’s claws

Canoptek Wraiths (110 points)

  • 3x Canoptek Wraith

    • 3x Particle caster

      3x Vicious claws

Lokhust Heavy Destroyers (50 points)

  • 1x Close combat weapon

    1x Enmitic exterminator

A force of three squads of Immortals armed with Tesla Carines (Str 5, Assault with Sustained Hits 2...nasty!) The Plasmancer was attached  to an Immortal Squad. The Technomancer was attached to a squad of Canoptek Wraiths, another squad of Immortals was led by Orikan the Diviner. 

1300 of necron mess. 

Our Primary Mission was Purge the Foe (my third time in a row playing this one), Chosen Battlefield was the Mission Rule and Hammer and Anvil was the Deployment card we pulled. 

I decided to Deep Strike in all my DW Terminators so I placed the rest of the force in a defensive posture in a corner of my Deployment Zone and on an Objective. 

Deathwatch deployment. 

Full field deployed. 

The Deathwatch won the roll-off to go first. The Deathwatch Bikers zipped out and claimed the next Objective. The Landraider opened up on one of the Doomstalkers, the Oath of Moment target for this round, putting 6 Wounds on it. 

Objective secured! 

On the Necrons Turn 1, the combined firepower of the big machines knocked about half of the Wounds off of the Landraider. While the Immortals that could target the Bikers killed half of the squad. 

Deathwatch VPs: 2

Necrons VPs: 5

Objective under fire!

After a fairly soft first turn, it was about to get, as they say, "real".  At the start of Deathwatch Turn 2, the DW Bikers rolled a 12 on their Battleshock test, totally committing to holding that Objective. Furor Tactics in play really helped get the hits but it was the Terminators, all of whom I brought in on this turn via Deep Strike, that helped turn the tide. One squad brought down one of the Doomstalkers the other opened up on a unitl of Immortals and finished them off in the Fight Phase. Over confident they consolidated closer to the Wraiths. 

The Terminators gain a foot hold. 

The third group of Terminators were not so fortunate. Despite supporting fire from the DW Bikers the big unit of Immortals on top of the big rock with an objective on it. 

At the end of my Fight phase the Plasmancer teleported his unit of Immortals away. And at the start of Necrons Turn 2 he rematerialzed on the other side of the table within gun range of the Chaplin and the Deathwatch Vets who were holding, what they thought, was the securest objective. They were promptly erased by the fire power of the Immortals and the Plasmancer. 

Then came the quote of the night: "I'm pulling some shenanigan bullshit!" As he moved his wraiths over the Terminators nearest to them. This triggers a special rules they have that hits the enemy unit moved over with Mortal Wounds. Ouch. But the Terminators weathered that and fought well against the Wraiths who they were now locked in melee with. 

Turn 2 VPs 

Deathwatch: 21

Necrons: 13

If the Deathwatch was winning at this point, it didn't feel like it.  Their assets were spread quite wide and their gains were costly. The secondary objectives achieved in that round (No Prisoners and Bring it Down) were replaced on Turn 3 with ones that would be very challenging to achieve, and I didn't have the CPs to spare to burn a card. 

The fight for the ridge top.

But I wanted that objective in my DZ back so I zipped the Landraider up (which at this point only had one Wound left!) and deployed the Librarian. To help them out I even made the Plasmancer and his Immortals the Oath of Moment target for this round. He was going to Smite the Immortals and Charge them. Maybe? Not sure as the Immortals overwatched him and, even with a 4+ Invulnerable Save, was executed before he set foot off the Landraider's Assault ramp. The Landraider raider tore into the Immortals and despite killing a few of them, was unable to assault the Immortals. 

A heroic suicide 

On the other side all of fights were now locked and engaged. The Terminators and Wraiths continued to dance in melee, while the other squad charged into the other Doomstalker but just couldn't bring it down. 

"This Doomstalker is harder to kill than the first one!"

Necrons Turn three and the only the Landraider and bikers were not locked in close combat. Despite being the sole survivor for a few Fight phases he was laid low when the Reanimator joined the fray. The Terminators and wraiths kept fighting, and with reanimation protocols restoring Wounds and model everywhere, it was quickly apparent that the Deathwatch were now out matched. 

The continues.

Meanwhile the Immortals and the Plasmancer on their turn destroyed the Landraider with ease. And claimed the objective. 

"It is ours."

Outmatched by the end of the turn it looked impossible to turn the tide. The Necrons were claiming so many Objectives now and my units were locked in fights for survival that were near none of them. I considered the Gambit cards, but after seeing the time,  I had to call it regardless. I wanted to keep going to the bitter end, but it just seemed best to stop here. Maybe if the DW Terminators had the Kill Team keyword I could've used the Teleprtarium Stratagem (made sense  to me at the time since that's what got them onto the table!) but, no, that would make sense. So they were essentially stuck.

Final VPs

Deathwatch: 25

Necrons: 33

"Umm... can we get a beam up or something?"

Had we continued the Necrons would be impossible to catch up to from a points perspective, and from an attrition perspective it wasn't looking so hot for the Deathwatch either. 

Good game Screech, thanks for schooling me on Necrons. They are a fun army, but nasty to face in this current meta**. And, the so called Xenos Hunters, prove that they're just not able to handle this foe either, at least not with the assembled units available to me. 

*Exported with App Version: v1.11.0 (39), Data Version: v352

**I accept my punishment for using this accursed word. 

March for Macrage '24 (Part 5)

 Here's the final miniature I was able to finish for the March For Macragge challenge. I completed him, well actually I painted the entire model, on March 30th. This was such an easy and satisfying miniature to paint. 

For the sake of brevity I won't blather on about the painting steps unless it's something I've not chronicled elsewhere. For example the steps for painting the cloak was discussed when I revealed the Eliminators. 

Basecoats.

The sword was an interesting departure. Perhaps I was inspired by a recent game I had against Necrons. No, not the  necrons themselves but my Deathwatch Librarian. When I painted him I made his force sword all green and glowy and during that game, I kind of realized how much I like it. 

Stepping out to smite the foe! 

So of course I replicated it on this guy. I painted the tip and the  runes on the blade using Moot Green. Then lightly applied Straken Green in layers to make a sort of faded effect before then adding a glaze of Tesseract Glow. The. I finished it off with a highlight of Stormhost Silver. 

Green and glowy.

This was such a quick model to paint. Before I knew it, I was slapping down the tufts! I was, and still am a little bit, tempted to paint his eyes with a electrical blue effect, but decided against it.

The finished model.

Peaking out from the cloak you can see a hint of his chapter icon. I free-hand painted this as trying to get a decal to work right might have driven me over the edge. I am pleased with how it turned out considering how subtle it is. If hadn't I would likely have just left blue. 

Another view of the sword. 

I decided at the last minute to keep his book black. The idea of a guy running around with a "little black book" amuses me and it's kind of a nod to the WHFB Dwarves of old.

The little black book.

Here he is joined up with the unit I will most likely join him up with. It's not just because they've coordinated their wardrobe, but the mutual benefits in the current edition of the game are quite good. 

Killing with friends. 

Hopefully we can get hims, and all the rest of my #MarchForMacragge models, on to the table top soon!