Apocalypse Wow!

 

My local GW - Southport has recently had a new manager start, and as mentioned there will be an Apocalypse battle against the newly reawakened Necrons on the 19th November. So we've got together a 1,500pt force [as per instructions]. It's prety much our standard list but I wanted to try out the two Primes, and the Mycetic Spore.

We ummed and ahhed over Zoanthropes, Rippers, more Hormogaunts and the Biovore and in the end managed a bit of each just minus the Zoanthrope. 'Madness' some may say but he's currently broken and although their the only real anti-tank we have I don't think it's worth it to pin all our Monolith killing hopes on the big brained bug.

The Biovore was also not a first choice but having heard some reports about the danger of the new Scarabs I can see his pie-plate blasts coming in handy to thin out those things, so he came back in.

The Rippers may be surprising considering my past thoughts but I wanted to finish the other two bases of them but in the end thought just the three, and the Biovore was a better option. I ran the maths versus more Hormagaunts but realised I could have 4 Hormies or 3 Rippers and although there's less option to claim objectives the increased wounds may make them more of a pain to the Necrons. So long as I can keep them in Synapse of one of my creatures, probably the Trygon Prime after Tunneling then at least they won't start eating themselves!

So we have:

• Tyranid Prime with Lashwhip and Bonesword, Deathspitter
• Tyranid Prime with Pair of Boneswords, Scything Talons
• Tervigon with Catalyst, Toxin Sacs, Adrenal Glands, Stinger Salvo
• 10x Termagaunts with Devourer inside:
• Mycetic Spore with Hardened Carapace, Lash Whip, Ripper tentacles, Stinger Salvo
• 21x Hormaguants with Toxin Sacs
• 3x Tyranid Warriors with Barbed Strangler,Deathspitter
• Broodlord with Scything Talons, Adrenal Glands, with:
• 7x Genestealers with Adrenal Glands
• 7x Genestealers with Toxin Sacs
• 3x Ripper Swarms with Tunnel Swarm
• 10x Gargoyles
• Trygon with Upgrade to Trygon Prime
• 1x Biovore

1499pts. 68 figures [7 Synapse creatures] although some will be deep striking. The CC Prime will most likely join the Hormagaunts. I think the Trygon will be deep-striking but we'll decide on the day. I'll take pictures and report back after the event.

Size is everything... excuse me, isn't 'Terrain everything'?

Well, I suppose it's a bit of both in this case. You may recall the new kitchen was fitted last month and with it came a new dining table. Some may say it's too big but 'some' would never say that to his wife! The old table was 118 x 76cm, and the new table is 150 x 90cm [a 5' x 3' table!] which translates to 127% more width and 118% more length [depending on which way you look at it].

Obviously these pics imply that Ferron proxima has bitten the dust and been replaced with the homeworld of Superted's side-kick Spotty but this is only due to a new Ferron Proxima battlemat awaiting printing.

Here's my son's Tervigon and Old Matt Black: Former hero of the Imperium to add a sense of scale. Considering it's only a minor increase in size it certainly seems like there's a lot of room. To play I think we'll rotate the table so we can finally setup long board edge-wise but our deployment zone will only be 6 inches in so we have the full two inches of killing ground to make the shooting phase effective.

Anyway, when the new battlemat is done I'll share it with y'all.

To done...!

Following on from Purity Sealing 90% of my son's 'nids, which was on my To Do List. I still had to gloss varnish all the claws and talons. This wasn't actually high up on my list, not with some progress on my Dark Angels, which I'll share at some point. However, I found out the other day that our local GW is having an Apocalypse battle on the 19th to celebrate the Necron re-awakening and you've got to bring a 1500pt army. I wanted to get the majority glossed up so their claws are nice and sharp for the living metal.

The Trygon, Tervigon and Broodlord were already done but I've just gone through the

• 3 Tyranid Warriors
• 1 Tyranid Prime [the other hasn't been sealed yet so there's not much point to varnishing it]
• 24 Genestealers
• 28 Hormagaunts
• 47 Termagants [I think, it's difficult to count them as they all look the same - racist!]

Any job done so I'm a bit chuffed with myself and also that my son is interested again, well he's written his list for Father Christmas and good old Santa is going to have to visit GW too!

The art of 40k - More Gary Harrod

In the second of my posts about my favorite 40k artists I've only gone and stumbled across a few more pictures by Gary Harrod so I thought I'd share these before going on to my next fave artist. So here's the pic that blew me away the most [the one I described in my original post]. They all click much bigger than my usual fair, so enjoy.

Next up are three images from the Deathwing, Space Hulk expansion rules. Like I said the stark highlights and shadows literally jump off the page compared to the rest of the illustrations and I think when you add in the two pictures I already found you can begin to see the awesomeness of Gary's work. I love this terminator, just look at the amount of light coming from his gun, you can imagine having your retinas scorched by that after image!

Here too, the psychic battle between genestealer and presumably Deathwing Librarian. Taking into account most of the GW rulebooks at this time were monotone, with pure black and white and where grey was needed the dots in the halftone pattern were employed to give the required grey it was Gary's extensive use of black and white that made his drawings stand out most, like I say they leap from the page.

Lastly, what i think is the weakest of the three images in execution but possibly the image which holds more menace and anticipation thanks to the unsuspecting marine about to experience 'death from above' not the other way round as their usual motto states.

Oh, and the two previous pics to see Gary's work I've discovered so far as a set.

Get your Dose

WARNING, this is not really 40k related so please don't panic but it's better than nothing.

Some may recall my post in September regarding the video for the music from the recently released Space Marine video game. I got to showcase some of the work my Facebook buddy, Sam Hayles. Well he's only gone and updated his Portfolio website. On it you can see his awesome CD cover designs for the likes of Earthtone 9 and Monstter:

Also his excellent playing card designs:

His work is really cool and potentially inspirational for those who are creative and if you're painting figures then yes, that means you. Additionally you can purchase some of his artworks [currently featured in the TV show Hollyoaks of all places?!], sticker packs, t-shirts and even a mug at the DOSEprodSHOP. Check out his stuff, he's a really cool dude.



Deathwing Progress

That aim to produce a years worth of content has been a bit of a killer. I hoped to still have plenty of content to share with you but Dawn of War, the new kitchen and the slow progress on any Dark Angel material has brought the blog to a standstill pretty much, or it will do. I still want to keep up with blogging and my painting but a number of other projects really need priority, not least an update to my Kendo Club's website. What's frustrating is my desire to do 40k/hobby stuff  is still very much there, I just don't have the motivation to translate that desire to action... still here's an update on the Deathwing.

As you can see they all now have Ferron Crux Terminatus, although I think they need a Devlan Mud wash to bring out more contrast.

I've also added the bronze items, still need to do another highlight, then Devlan Mud and Badab Black to bring back the shadows and I'm going to do some Turquoise for a bit of verdigris patina which should age the weapons nicely, though I'm concerned it'll be a colour too far. Still to debate the use of Dark Angels green anywhere, it's questions like these that are delaying progress.

Eye lenses will be green, I think [?], but there's targetting lenses, all the odd rivets and bolts etc. the whole thing is just building into a chore to get even the smallest detail resolved. I'm happy with the Bonewhite but the battle damage will be another risk, which stalls that too.

On top of this I worked out I could have scratchbuilt an assault cannon from my Ravenwing upgrade sprue, which would have been useful and so would a Cyclone Missile launcher, which I could also make from the upgrades, or try to use the launcher from my Drop Pod.

G.O.D. knows what I'm going to do for the Sergeants Power Sword. I really want to progress with these but I'm spending ages on them. They're by no means Golden Demon, but I'm taking more care on them than the nids and the slow decision making is hampering progress from the beginning. Which obviously slows down the blog. Anyway, progress is progress, we'll get there in the end.

Apologies for the colours in the pics, night shots again in the garage. Hopefully I'll get some better ones at the next update.

Flufftastic - Ferron Proxima and the 'Caffeine Wars'

As I was writing my last STC post for the 'Ruined Caffeine Plaza Market' things kidn of got out of hand. A lot of ideas surfaced, fluff-wise for Ferron Proxima, far more than one post deserved and it would have taken away from the fact a new STC had been found! So I decided to split the fluff and create another new series 'flufftastic'. I've a couple of ideas of how this is going to go to bring Ferron Proxima to life but the very process of writing things down can build a rich tapestry and exciting new options arise, for example who knew there are a couple of sister planets - Ferron Ultima and Ferron Minima? So I give you my first efforts [although there's plenty of fluff already been written in the blog], 'The Caffeine Wars'

The flora and fauna on Ferron Proxima has always had a profound effect on how settlers and natives interacted with their environment. Unlike Caliban with it's mass of ancient woodlands [before it was destroyed] Ferron Proxima is a much more barren, desert like environment, rich in iron deposits, basking under sulphur skies. Many plants have had to evolve to cope with such a hardy environment. One of these is the Ferron Bindweed (Fallopia ferrousica). Ferron Bindweed is a species of flowering plant in the Bindweed family known by several common names, including Ferron vine, Guarana fleeceflower, Caliban fleecevine, Caffeine lace vine. It is native to Ferron Proxima and it can be found growing wild in parts of the Heartlands and has been bio-engineered for crop reasons. It is grown for its seed-laced vines, and is extremely fast-growing plant that has the capacity to become an invasive speces by spreading beyond its intended limits.

The Bindweed seed is an effective stimulant: it contains about twice the caffeine found in coffee beans (about 2–4.5% caffeine in Bindweed seeds compared to 1–2% for coffee beans). As with other plants producing caffeine, the high concentration of caffeine is a defensive toxin that repels pathogens from the berry and its seeds.These seeds plays an important role in the native cultures. According to a myth attributed to the Bear Claw tribe, Bindweesd's domestication originated with a deity killing a beloved village child. To console the villagers, a more benevolent god plucked the left eye from the child and planted it in the forest, resulting in the wild variety of Bindweed. The god then plucked the right eye from the child and planted it in the village, giving rise to domesticated Bindweed. The fact that the Bindweed seeds were in fact bio-engineered to deliver a purer and more refined fruit by the early settlers had been lost for millenia, although the tribal tales, passed down from shaman to shaman, remain to this day.

The natives would make a tea by shelling, washing and drying the seeds, followed by pounding them into a fine powder. The powder is kneaded into a dough and then shaped into cylinders. This product is known as Bindweed bread, which would be grated and then immersed into hot water along with sugar. This highly potent 'caffeine' brew has become renowned among the subsector and over time Ferron Proxima became awash with competing franchises.

Caffeine shops, plazas and markets are a massive part of Ferron life, including Ferron Proxima, Ferron Ultima and Ferron Minima [although the sister planets produce their own Ferron Bindweed it is not of such high quality as Proxima Bindweed seeds so a huge export operation accounts for a good portion of Proxima's GDC]. Caffeine joints sprung up across the planet, the sudden increase of consumption and competition even raised questions among the Inquisition as to whether the Bindweed seeds were at worst warp tainted or at the very least addictive. Declassified documents pertaining to the Caffeine Wars of 4541942.M40 show close examination of the gene-structure by Inquisatorial MechAdepts revealed discrete but recognizable STC matrix components. This led the Inquisition to publicly close their investigation but privately they approached each franchise with a mandate to claim compensation on behalf of the Emperor and the Adeptus Mechanicus for the use of  STC technology in their brew. Forced to capitulate to these new 'tithes' the cartels pressed harder to expand and compete against each other to cover the new expenses. 

Competition grew to the point where open warfare in the 'caffeine plazas' between franchises took place, with some franchises stepping up their protection by employing mercenaries and off-world gangers. Much like gang warfare in many of the Hive's sectorwide the 'caffeine loyalists' would band together to assault rival franchises, bringing new meaning to the term 'hostile takeover'. Regardless of the victor the battlefields were the caffeine plazas, the terraces awash with blood, spilled beans and latte foam. Many of these ruined plazas have long been abandoned, as it's not good for business to associate with the lowest point in 'barrista history'. Many independent retailers were obliterated including some large franchises, as well as renowned 'caffeine dynasties' dating back to the early settlers, who learned of the properties of the Bindweed and shared 'tea' with the Bear Claw Tribe. Since the cessation of all attacks in 4541947.M40 Starforts Caffeine has remained dominant in the Ferron market but Codex Coffee waits in the wings, plotting and vying for another chance to take control...